Football.

Rating: 7/10 (3 January 2000)

I was really hoping for ANY GIVEN SUNDAY to be the ultimate football movie. I really was hoping since it had a great cast (Al Pacino, Dennis Quaid, Cameron Diaz, Jim Brown, James Woods, etc.) and Oliver Stone is a powerful director with such movies as JFK and BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY. Yet when I saw the movie I realized that Oliver Stone has changed since JFK. Since NATURAL BORN KILLERS, Stone has taken the audience into a bizarre and twisted world. A world that some will find brilliant, and others disturbed.
ANY GIVEN SUNDAY is the in-depth look of professional football. Eariler this year we experienced high school football (VARSITY BLUES) and now it's time for the pro's. Al Pacino stars as Tony D' Amato a aging coach who is struggling to get his team into a successful season. His star quarterback, Jack "Cap" Rooney is thirty-nine years old, and isn't as healthy as he use to be. The team owner and manager, Christina Pagniacci (Cameron Diaz) keeps breathing down his neck on why isn't their team winning. The team doctor, Dr. Harvey Mandrake (James Woods) is switching the medical exams of the players, so they can play. Yet, Mandrake is endangering the lives of the players. And to top it off, a young quarterback with a high ego is becomming the star player for the team, Willie Beaman (Jamie Foxx). The trouble is that Beaman is doing his own plays and causing trouble among the team. ANY GIVEN SUNDAY is a strong look at the lives of the NFL players. With money, fame, power, women, women, and more women, you would think that these guys have life made easy, yet they don't. They have to face aging, younger and stronger players, teammates back-stabbing them, life threating injuries, and players who think that they are the only reason on why the team is doing good. I did enjoy the way the film looked into the lives of these men. How the coach is under pressure with the team players and management, how the aging quarterback is trying to maintain his image, and how the young rookie is facing the negativity from his teammates. The acting was very good. Pacino as usual was great, but he gave a stronger and more passionate performance in THE INSIDER. Dennis Quaid is always a delight to see, and he does a great job in this film as well. Cameron Diaz is a excellent actress, going from her ditzy role in BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, to her witchy attitude in this film. Jim Brown is always a delight to see, since he was a professional football player. James Woods is always a great slimy and evil person to see, and Matthew Modine is fun to watch as a character who is the opposite of Woods character. And even L.L. Cool J was fun in this film, a lot better than his previous film, DEEP BLUE SEA. But if the film belongs to anyone, it's Jamie Foxx. The rap singer/comedian does a great job and carries the film off well as the new popular quarterback who makes the team stand out. I think that now, Foxx is going to be getting more juicy roles than he was before thanks to this film. Foxx does a great job and shows a serious side to his character. He doesn't overact or show off, he fits the role perfectly. So what did bother me with this film? Well it was Oliver Stone's directing. His extreme close ups on a person or a object, I will give him credit, it is original, and it has become a Oliver Stone trademark. But he's been doing it since NATURAL BORN KILLERS, and even directors Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese change their visual style once in a while. ANY GIVEN SUNDAY would have been perfect had Stone direct the film more like his earlier films, SALVADOR and WALL STREET. Overall, ANY GIVEN SUNDAY is a great film, but it wasn't the classic that I was hoping for it to be. I was hoping that this was the film that Stone would shock the critcs and tell them that he can still be a great director, like Speilberg did with SCHINDLER'S LIST. But sadly, this isn't the film, some critcs enjoyed it, others didn't. This critic did enjoy it, but it isn't the best Oliver Stone film, JFK still holds the title. **** (out of five)