Any Given Sunday (Special Edition Director's Cut) (Snap Case Packaging)
by Oliver Stone
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DVD details
Actor: Al Pacino, Cameron Diaz, Dennis Quaid, James Woods, Jamie FoxxDirector: Oliver Stone
Brand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Director's Cut, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 150 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-08-07
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Warner Home Video
DVD Reviews of Any Given Sunday (Special Edition Director's Cut) (Snap Case Packaging)
DVD Review: Where are you now that we need you, Bruno Ricci?
Summary: 1 Stars
It's hard to know where to start with this movie. Should one begin by saying, "Poor Al Pacino"? Or "Poor Oliver Stone"? ... Two talents, notably wasted.
Let's start with Al, a paisan. ...
Where have you gone, Al Pacino? A nation turns its lonely eyes to your lonely eyes. Was it in "And Justice For All" that you started *lecturing* us? There you are, holding forth on this, that or the other. But this isn't acting, Al baby, it's pontificating.
That might not be so bad if "Any Given Sunday" has something to say. It doesn't. It's an empty, cynical, mean-spirited film.
Stone, as director, co-writer and bit actor in the movie, wants it both ways. On one hand, he hauls out every cliché, every truism, every shallow intellectually-impoverished "insight" about football -- that it uses up bodies and spirits -- that it represent corporatism-gone-wild
-- that it's no longer anything near a "game" but instead a ruthless, soulless business. All of which Stone, as director/writer pontificates about via his actors.
At the same time, he wants it the *other* way, too. That is to say, he takes every opportunity to show us the blood-lust of professional football -- the spectacular hits, the macho strutting, the caveman sexuality. In short, all the worst aspects of human nature.
Come on, Ollie, make-up-yer-mind! You can't have it both ways, boychick.
It's not that there aren't talented people involved in this movie. Like so many other pieces of Hollywood crap, there is a great deal of talent in front of and behind the camera. But to what end? To say what?
Here's Oliver Stone making "JFK" in which he postulates that JFK was bumped off by, among others, the military-industrial complex. Ok, fine, that being the case, then why doesn't he offer us in "On Any Given Sunday," any meaningful, insightful, first-order connection between football and the brutality of American militarism; football and the corporatization of America; football and "The American way of life." Any attempts to do this in the movie are embarrassingly weak and sophomoric.
Consider Oliver Stone's "take" on 9-11; the ridiculous movie he made about the heroes of 9-11. Say, Oliver, think there might be just a *tad* of evidence that 9-1l was perhaps "allowed to happen" -- or worse? That there is, in fact, a truckload of information, evidence and "background context" that's been systematically ignored by the Establishment, and that maybe a talented filmmaker such as yourself can shed some light on. ... But wait a second, there I go mistaking you for someone other than a status quo-defending Establishment mainstay.
Getting back to "On Any Given Sunmday," the funniest part of the movie, albeit completley unintentional, is the quick-cut, still-photo reference to Al Pacino's character as a quarterback star in days-gone-by. Oh, please, Lord have mercy! (And, please note: I'm an agnostic.) Al Pacino as a quarterback?!
I'm old enough to remember when some quarterbacks were short, e.g., Eddie LaBaron and Bobby Layne in the 1950s, but please: Al Pacino as a quarterback? He'd have to bring a ladder to the line of scrimmage every time he threw a pass.
As previously noted, the movie is packed with talented craftsman, Stone and Pacino included among them. But what are they toiling at? Answer: A pretentious piece of violent, frenzied, cynical, intellectually-addled nonsense. (And those are the *good* parts of the movie! Ba-da-bing-bing!)
Cameron Diaz is talented enough to be in quality movies. An occurence that's yet to happen.
Even if all the movie aspires to be is "entertaining," it's a flop. It's totally ridiculous on the face of it. The only entertainment value it can have is for the audience to laugh out loud at its shallowness and pomposity.
Enough, Oliver, with these nanosecond, wink-of-an-eye, hyperactive montage cuts. You're a grown man, now, Oliver; rapid eye movement syndrome is not for you. (Or us.)
Question: You went so fast with all the nanosecond quick-cuts, Oliver, I couldn't keep up -- was that Lee Harvey Oswald on the sidelines schtupping Caeron Diaz? (Oh, the humanity!)
Sports movies are always difficult to pull off, especially football movies. In fact, maybe the only quality football movie ever released was "North Dallas Forty," starring Nick Nolte. Better yet, know what," read the book by the same name. Although after you watch "On Any Given Sunday" you may want to give your eyeballs six months to calm down and return to normal.
In short, next time let the camera *linger* a bit, Oliver. Breath deeply, take a tranquilizer, study the way Vittorio DeSica used his camera. Just calm down, Oliver, just calm down.
And, Al. Poor Al Pacino, my paisan, my cumpare. How did it comes to this? I want all inquiries made. I want no acts of vengeance. These goofy, nonsensical movies you're making, one after another after another, ALL THIS MUST END! Kabish?
And don't say: "Can't do it, Sally," because we all know you can. You're just a little confused now. Take a lap ... and lose the Joe Namath posters.
More Any Given Sunday (Special Edition Director's Cut) (Snap Case Packaging) reviews:
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Description of Any Given Sunday (Special Edition Director's Cut) (Snap Case Packaging)
When a devastating hit knocks a professional football legend and quarterback cap rooney out of the game a young unknown third-stringer is called in to replace him. Willie beaman seizes what may be his last chance and lights up the field with a raw display of athletic prowess. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 09/27/2005 Starring: Al Pacino Jamie Foxx Run time: 157 minutes Rating: R Director: Oliver StoneAny Given Sunday, Oliver Stone's salute-cum-exposé of pro football, belabors some pretty obvious points for nigh onto three hours; but between the frenetic editing, the pounding rap-music beats, and several flashy performances, it's certainly never dull. Al Pacino, coach of the fictional Miami Sharks (the NFL declined involvement in this production), struggles with the most time-honored of sports movie dilemmas: what to do with the old friend who's past his prime and the young hotshot who could save the franchise but first has to learn what being a team player is all about. Comedian Jamie Foxx does a marvelous dramatic turn as the rookie quarterback whose ego and talent are equally impressive, while Pacino seems more at ease in Oliver Stone Land than any actor since regular James Woods (on hand as well as a sleazy team doctor). Prowling the sidelines, shouting spittle-flecked orders, seizing up in almost physical pain when a play goes the wrong way, Pacino is as unashamedly--and entertainingly--hyperbolic as Stone's whirling montages of boiling storm clouds, bloodthirsty fans, and players smashed into the mud. (Once again football, perhaps the most sophisticated of team sports, is viewed cinematically as a bunch of guys hitting each other in slow motion.) Unfortunately, all the self-conscious mythologizing and pumped-up macho posturing that Stone can muster doesn't conceal a clichéd, slapped-together script, whose few good ideas (mostly about race in America) jostle about with several hoary, terrible ones--including a too-literal analogy of football players as modern gladiators. (To drive the point home, Stone includes Charlton Heston--the aging Ben-Hur--in one of many star-powered cameos.) All in all, Any Given Sunday is never dull, but never very enjoyable, either. --Bruce Reid
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