Pacino and Foxx save a sinking ship

Rating: 6/10 (19 March 2006)

Starring: Al Pacino, Cameron Diaz, Jamie Foxx, Dennis Quaid
Writer-director Oliver Stone leads an all-star cast to an "insider's look" at the world of pro football in this gridiron epic. When accomplished veteran quarterback Jack "Cap" Rooney (Quaid) goes down with a spinal injury, things don't look good for coach Tony D'Amato (Pacino) and his Miami Sharks. Perennial contenders for the fictitious Pantheon Cup, the Sharks have dropped their last three and are in danger of missing the playoffs. Salvation comes in the form of third-string sensation QB "Steamin'" Willie Beamen (Foxx), a rookie whose instant success breeds an instant ego. "I've spent half my career sittin' on the bench," he says. "I don't plan on going back." His attitude begins to tear a rift between the team's stars (including LL Cool J as a superstar runningback who needs more yards to clinch more endorsements) -- after all, there's only one football to go around.
The movie goes beyond the field however, covering the sport from all angles: Owner/GM Christina Pagniacci (Diaz), sick of D'Amato's old school ideologies, sees offensive coordinator Nick Crozier (Aaron Eckhart) as the new face of her team, with Beamen leading the youth movement to take the Sharks back to the Cup. James Woods has a brief but memorable turn as an oily team doctor who clashes with his young assistant (Matthew Modine) over the ethics of sports medicine. John C. McGinley has a great turn as a Jim Rome-esquire journalist, with opinions so scathing that he and D'Amato actually come to blows (afterwards, in one of the movie's many brilliant moments, Tony asks flippantly, "Where's your wheelchair?").
The problem is that the movie stretches too far, and the film suffers from terrible pacing issues. Clocking in at over two and a half hours, the movie drags for the first 60mins before finally finding its feet. The initial game action seems to stretch on forever, with Stone highlighting pass after pass with generic rap music. It's a very trying first hour, but once the movie takes off, it soars. Pacino is fantastic as a man at the end of his rope and his pre-game speech about "inches" is stuff for the history books. Really though, this is Jamie Foxx's movie and he's phenomenal. It's surprising to me that it took five years after this film's release for him to become a star -- he does it all in this movie: he's fierce, funny, and even wrote three songs for the soundtrack.
FINAL SCORE: 7.5 = B-
As a football fan in Vancouver, it's amusing to spot the parallels between Beamen/Rooney and Printers/Dickenson. A few sensationalists at The Province wrote that not even Hollywood could write a better story, but Oliver Stone did. The performances in this movie are all strong, but there are too many of them. Just like the team on screen, there are too many superstars on board, and not enough screen time for all of them. Stone over-extends the film's perspective, and it leaves the film feeling very long at times. Still, when it hits, it's incredible. The chapter-search button was built for movies like this.