LeonLouisRicci It's Hard to Score with a Sports Movie. It is the Most Difficult of Genres. Realism is the Biggest Obstacle to Overcome. Audience Members who have Played the Sport will be on the Lookout for Cheating and a Lack of Verisimilitude. Fans of the Game will be Expecting the Kind of Rush that the Game on the Screen Gives Them Watching Real-Life Sporting Events. It is Virtually Impossible to Have a Sports Movie that Avoids Clichés because in Reality the Thing that Makes Sports so Much Fun to Watch are Clichés (4th quarter, seconds left, 4th down, goal to go, down by 5......bottom of the 9th, bases loaded, 2 outs, 3 and 2 count, down by 3...and so on).So How does Director Oliver Stone, a Filmmaker who Loves to do things that are Cutting Edge, Over the Top, and Different, Deal with All of that? He doesn't, that's what He does. The Always Controversial Curmudgeon, Stone Decides to Embrace the Clichés, Wallow in them, Celebrate the Clichés, Putting it All there for All to See, and He says See, "That is Football". It's No Mistake, that Quote is from the Director Himself, Playing a TV Announcer. As the Commentator He Also Includes a Nod to Sports Aphorisms, "Here's where the proverbial rubber meets the proverbial road".This is a Sports Movie that is an Oliver Stone Movie that is High Entertainment, Amped Up, OK, Performance Enhanced (couldn't resist), and In Your Face just like the Game of Football. With the Advent of Cameras on Wires, and Cameras in Blimps, and Helmet Cameras, the Medium has Become the Message and the Director is, No Doubt a Fan of Football (and Marshall Mcluhan).The Cast is Superb and the Sport of Football in the Movie is Played by Real Football Players, or at Least Actors who have Athletic Ability. Recommended for Football Fans, and the Parallels Between the Game Itself and the Movie Game Portrayed, Make for Good Teammates.

lsuguru OMG.. Where to start. First off 99% of the hits would've drawn a fine. Disregarding a coaches play calling? LOL! Take a seat on the bus. Beamon would've been on the 1st bus to the Canadian FB league. Secondly...Miami with 2 teams? BWAHAHAHA!. Next, they couldn't even getapproval for real NFL teams because the story sucked so bad. Beamon would in no way shape or form drop 6 rounds because he accepted a cheap ass suit. Maybe 1 round at most. LOL! Oliver Stone should have given way to someone who actually knew football. The Speech by Pacino was awesome, I'll admit. The rest of the movie was utter bullshit. This movie was on the same level as Necessary Roughness...LOL! DO yourself a favor and watch Everybody's All-American.

ramsfan I both played and coached football and have been around the game for 30 years. On an entertainment level, Any Given Sunday is somewhat effective, but the comments from people lauding this movie's "realism" are laughable. Any Given Sunday is anything but realistic and is instead marred by questionable casting, over the top performances and an uneven script. AGS doesn't quite know what it wants to be: it touches on some relevant areas of the game including risking health for money, the business side of football and the importance of the team concept, but ultimately the movie isn't effective because the viewer fails to take a personal interest in many of these guys. They are instead merely cardboard characters used to advance the plot. What results is a disjointed, uneven film with more misses than hits.The plot is simple enough. Veteran coach Tony D'Amato (Al Pacino) has been successful for most of his 30 year run. However, his team falls on hard times and questions arise about his ability to lead. When his veteran QB gets hurt, untested backup Willie Beamen (Jamie Foxx) steps into the breach and starts to win. He lets success go to his head, however, and quickly alienates his teammates with a selfish, me-first attitude. Eventually, he realizes he must lead by example and not just through physical play. Beamen redeems himself and saves his season.Despite a host of name actors involved with Any Given Sunday, it is not well cast. I absolutely love Al Pacino- a truly great actor with scores of awards (including an Oscar) for validation, but he does NOT make a convincing football coach. Compare his role for instance with that of James Gammon as manager Lou Brown in the lightweight comedy Major League. Gammon looks, acts and speaks like a grizzled managerial veteran- a GREAT job of casting. Only Pacino's tremendous skills as an actor prevent this from being a disaster. Ironically, the unquestioned best scene in the movie is Pacino's locker room speech, an inspiring, passionate speech touching on the virtues of self-reflection and togetherness- it elicits both a tear from the eye and a fire from within. Unfortunately, this is the exception.Cameron Diaz, despite being a qualified actress, is not convincing as the owner of a professional sports franchise and strains credibility. It's revealed that she inherited the team from her football-minded father, but it plays flat. Many of the football stars are caricatures; when ex-Giant great Lawrence Taylor looks like Sir Laurence Olivier compared to some of these clowns, you know there's a problem. And perhaps the worst performance of all belongs to John C. McGinley who hams it up and evokes images of a crazed Jim Rome as a slimy sports talk show host.Oliver Stone is completely out of his element with Any Given Sunday. And any movie with Al Pacino, Charlton Heston, James Woods, Matthew Modine, Jim Brown, Cameron Diaz, James Karen and a host of other A-list performers should've been a helluva lot better.

bdutchins Director Oliver Stone's unbelievable, typical heavy handed over directed style is all over this "dead on arrival" movie. I just can't image who would have even thought to come up with an idea to make a sports movie around an aging coach and a young upstart rebel (who eventually comes to realize the major importance of being a team player. Oh wow! Give me a big break! From the over staged, less than exciting football segments (go watch real football – it is much more entertaining) to the habitual, paint by numbers, cliché final game (where everything comes down to several huge plot points) this movie stinks. The ending "will the old quarterback allow the young rebel to have the spotlight" and "will the aging veteran risk his frail health to go out in one huge flameout of football glory?" makes the this movie completely unremarkable. It's not so much that it's so bad, well, actually, it is just that! Are there any positive qualities? Hmmm, think, think, think - nope, can't think of a one.