Tries to Tackle too Much

Rating: Null/10 (4 January 2000)

I usually like Oliver Stone, but I hate it when he blows his films way out of proportion. For example, the overdone style in "Natural Born Killers," which is replicated here in "Any Given Sunday." Stone doesn't spare a cinematic technique, he throws every dizzying camera angle possible onto the screen. I was told this before I saw this, and it sounded necessary to me in order to fully capture the atmosphere that football players have to perform in ( Huge roaring crowds, photographers, cameramen, etc.) But Stone lays it on too thick making the viewer dizzy and ultimately tiresome with the game sequences.
Another unnecessary addition to the game sequences is the blasting soundtrack, which seems only put there to attract the jock teenagers who couldn't begin to comprehend the films intended themes anyway. Speaking of various themes, "Any Given Sunday," tries to deal with too many of them. To give you a clue it tries to show an aging coaches perspective of the game, his relationship with his players, his relationship with the black players, the black players perspective of the league, the team owner's relationship with the coach; and that's only a few of them. Naturally the prevalent theme of the film is how much these players and coaches have to sacrifice only to get used, abused and then thrown away. However, I think the biggest problem with "Any Given Sunday," is how much it glamourizes football players, (the taglines even go as far as to call them "gladiators"!) well... I'm not about to discuss that. Anyway to wrap it up Al Pacino, Jaime Foxx, James Woods, Cameron Diaz, and Matthew Modine all turn in good performances, and Stone remains a talented director, but next time Oliver, CAN YOU PLEASE HOLD THE CAMERA STRAIGHT FOR 5 MINUTES PLEASE!! And why the hell was LL COOL J in it?