Good plot, script, cast, but a bit bizarre

Rating: 8/10 (15 November 2008)

Still, the bizarreness doesn't take away the positive points of this film. Al Pacino stars as Tony D'Amato, Miami Sharks football coach. Dennis Quaid is his aging quarterback Cap Rooney, Jamie Foxx is Wiliie Beamon, backup QB who must step in and takeover when Rooney is injured. Cameron Diaz is the team owner who believes D'Amato's style is old school and is waiting for a chance to sack him (literally). Among others the cast includes James Woods (sleazy team doctor), Lawrence Taylor (linebacker about to have his head popped), Aaron Eckhart, Matthew Modine, LL Cool J, Jim Brown, Lela Rochon and Lauren Holly (Rooney's slut wife who still thinks she's in high school)and some dude with a huge apparatus that the ladies will love. Being a Miami Dolphins fan, I couldn't help but notice the similarities between this movie and the Dolphins 99' season.
Don't miss Pacino's "inches" speech before the final game, nor his talk with Jamie Foxx at his residence. Among the bizarre and downright hilarious scenes (maybe coke ain't that bad for Oliver Stone after all): Jamie Foxx making a rap video with bikini-clad girls and a Sisqo look-a-like (it was 1999, Sisqo and Dru Hill were the shiznit); one heavy-metallish linebacker having his eye pop out of it's socket (no one would survive that one); Lawrence Taylor using a chain-saw to cut Beamon's car in half because Willie dissed the defense (never talk bad about the "D" in front of LT); Elizabeth Berkley cameo playing, you guessed it, a hooker.
The football scenes are fast paced and relentless; this movie is equally an expose and a satire on the world of modern football. Besides LT and Brown, keep an eye out for several other football greats.