An insult on several levels

Rating: 3/10 (10 August 2014)

I am a fan of Oliver Stone. He made many films that are classics in my eyes. Consider films like Platoon, JFK, Wall Street, Born on the Fourth of July, or Natural Born Killers. Even W. Now we see a certain Oliver Stone as director of Any Given Sunday. This can not be the same Oliver Stone. Obviously Any Given Sunday is made by a Gangster Rapper, a wannabe with some experience doing MTV videos, commercial videos and some experience doing promotion videos for American Football. Is this film so bad? In my opinion? Definitely! The first part of the film was just terrible, the second part at least had some structure and some story. Apart from the very poor directing, the editing was amazing as well. Lots of random shots, lots of meaningless shots, lots of unrelated shots. Add to that a sometimes weird soundtrack.
The acting? An insult to the actors! In the first part of the film only Cameron Diaz had a decent role. In the second part there were some indications that the director actually wanted to use the immense capabilities of Al Pacino. Dennis Quaid was completely miscast; a 45 year old quarterback? You must be joking. Jamie Foxx was badly used, James Woods had a ridiculously poor part. But look at what they did to Aaron Eckhart and Charlton Heston. Tedious little parts. Charlton Heston was probably only in it because they used some clips from Ben Hur, again unnecessary and unrelated. And then not to mention Ann-Margret. Was it really necessary to put her in this film at all? And certainly not as a drunk, possibly with dementia. As an overall result this film is a sickening insult to the viewer as well. A lot of promises, no delivery.
You are mad about American Football? Love MTV? Go see this movie. You like to watch a good film? Ignore this one. You expect an Oliver Stone film? Not this one, not Any Given Sunday.