One of Oliver Stone´s best

Rating: 7/10 (29 December 2001)

Al Pacino plays an aging football coach who has seen better days. His team Florida Sharks are in big trouble, the best player is injured and a new hot-shot is tearing the team apart. And the bitchy team owner (Cameron Diaz) won´t get off his back untill the team start winning again.

In "Any Given Sunday", director Oliver Stone shows us his thoughts about the world of pro football, on and off the field. He has recruited lots of talented actors, Al Pacino, Cameron Diaz, Dennis Quaid, James Woods and newcomer Jamie Foxx to name a few. Everyone involved does a good job and actually convinces us that they are in the football business.

The film has Oliver Stone printed all over it, with razor-sharp editing and a pumping soundtrack, and it reminds of his controversial movie "Natural Born Killers". This one is just as good as "NBK", because it remains both believable and exciting at the same time. Being a European, I still don´t understand the joy about one of the world´s strangest sports, but the movie did entertain.
My only complains are the movie´s length (162 minutes) which feels a bit too long, and the part of the movie when we get to face Pacino´s personal problems never gets as interesting as the events out on the field.
4/5