Vince Lombardi's not turning over in his grave, but he's got a hell of a headache

Rating: Null/10 (1 January 2000)

Oliver Stone is a director who presents me with tremendous difficulties. I think that when he is at his best, he's better than just about anyone around (see "Nixon" or "JFK", for my money two of the best historical films ever made in Hollywood), but when he's not at 100 percent, he's just about the worst filmmaker out there (see "The Doors"...if you dare). "Any Given Sunday", his new football epic, falls squarely in the middle.
The screenplay, by John Logan and Stone, is really not worth too much comment. It's pretty much an overstuffed pile-up of sports-movie cliches, including the iron-willed coach, the headstrong kid who makes good on the field, the battered old veteran, the dimwitted muscleman, and the cold-hearted front-office suit (though a touch of novelty is added here by having the suit played by Cameron Diaz, looking better than ever).

Still, from these raw materials, you could craft a pretty decent film if you handled it properly, and Stone really doesn't. The opening football-game sequence is a good indicator of the method of the entire film. Incoherent editing, show-offy angles, and a soundtrack that is so swamped with bone-crunching noise and over-the-top musical mayhem that the dialogue often becomes impossible to comprehend. I found myself straining forward to get an earful (it probably wasn't worth it; the dialogue is nothing to write home about). In the past, this has seemed like an innovative and interesting style. Here, it gets in the way of Stone's story and just comes off as a lack of discipline.
Still, I recommend seeing the film at least once, largely due to the strength of its acting. Al Pacino does a credible job as the team's beleagured veteran coach, and he has some good rip-snorting battles with Diaz. Jamie Foxx wipes away all memories of "In Living Color" with a firecracker performance as the third-stringer whose time in the limelight swells his head. Also good are John C. McGinley as a loudmouth sports reporter (obviously modeled on Jim Rome) and James Woods as the team's cynical doctor who's willing to let players go out there hurt as long as it keeps him in money and cheerleaders.
Ultimately, I think "Any Given Sunday" will appeal more to people with little knowledge of how football actually works than to aficionados of the game. The film has almost nothing in the way of real sports strategy or tactics, but it does a decent job of capturing the visceral, brutal qualities of the game, and lends some credence to Stone's equation of football with war, and of its players with gladiators (it even goes as far as to cast Ben-Hur himself, Charlton Heston, as the football commissioner).
See the film, and draw your own conclusions.