Caution: Egomaniac At Work

Rating: 5/10 (2 September 2000)

I love sports and sports flicks. That is the very reason I didn't care for this film. This film is not a film about football; it is a film about Oliver Stone. With `Any Given Sunday', Stone has created his most ambitious tribute to his own megalomania. This film is a classic example of excessive style negating substance. Stone was so intent on showing us the sizzle, that he cooked all of the flavor out of the steak. A good director uses innovative technique to enhance the telling of the story. An egomaniac uses the story as an excuse to show off his talent and creativity. The result of such self-indulgence is almost always a diminishment of the final product.
Here Stone tries to out-hip the hip generation of directors by providing a staccato progression of weird angles, extreme close-ups and disjointed perspective shots with so many jump cuts that it makes `The Limey' look like it is on tranquilizers. I have never seen so much dialogue delivered by actors with half their heads cut off. The hand held football sequences were dreadful; as cameras were pounded into the turf without regard to the action that we were supposed to be following. The entire movie was like a three-hour music video, with images flitting willy-nilly as if they were being shot by a drunken mosquito. Ironically, Stone failed to learn the lesson learned by Willie Beaman (Jamie Foxx) in the story; that is that the good of the whole is more important than the glory of the individual.
It is a pity, because buried beneath all this decadent directorial tripe, there was a good sports story and some terrific acting. We saw how money and greed adulterates the sport and how athletes too often become selfish and conceited as they bask in the limelight. There was also the drama of the comeback in the critical game, which was dissipated by Stone's erratic camera work and editing.
Al Pacino gave a great performance as the legendary coach past his prime, who let his pride stand in the way of the team's success. Cameron Diaz rose above her accustomed quirky lightweight roles to deliver a stunning performance as the hard-as-nails club owner trying to move out of her dead father's shadow. Jamie Foxx was electric as the third string quarterback who explodes into the public eye and begins taking himself far too seriously, evoking the ire of his teammates.
This film had a great cast and a solid story that was marred by a narcissistic director who rendered it annoying to watch. I rated it a 5/10. It's a shame, because I love sports stories and I never got a chance to enjoy this one.