Oh Dear

Rating: Null/10 (27 May 2001)

Oliver Stone takes a cast that most film-makers would give their right arm for, a budget to match, and gives us "Major League" with face-cages. I assume that Al Pacino had a couple of beers too many the day he picked up this script and thought, "I'll give it a go". Given that sports movies are notorious for being almost uniformly awful, one would have thought that someone needed to exercise more caution on this project. Either approach it with a "Necessary Roughness" or "Mean Machine" air of light hearted abandon or go for exploring the psyche of the celebrity sportsman and the nasty, heartless underbelly of professional sports. Combinations dont work and I'm afraid that its exactly this kind of middle ground that "Any Given Sunday" finds itself languishing in. For those who havent seen it, imagine "Bull Durham" with a coach and you're pretty much there, without the engaging performances of Costner or Robbins. Don't get me wrong, Pacino almost, but not quite, manages to overcome the cliche of the "old timer" coach with a heavy heart and trouble adjusting to the modern game, but Dennis Quaid and Jamie Foxx are given so little to work with that their roles are, I'm afraid, beyond redemption. After one particular defeat D'Amato (Pacino)announces "this stinks". I felt obliged to agree.