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FILM DETAILS

Certificate 18

Cast Al Pacino Cameron Diaz Dennis Quaid Jamie Foxx James Woods LL Cool J Jim Brown Matthew Modine Jamie Foxx.

Directors Oliver Stone.

Screenwriters Oliver Stone John Logan Oliver StonE.

Running Time 162 minutes

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Any Given Sunday
Oliver Stone takes on the battlefield of US football.

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Plot
Al Pacino's gung-ho football coach must pull an American football team out of their league table tailspin.

Review
"Listen up team, this is the play. Us white guys are gonna blast through the middle with a mixture of youthful machismo and world-weary substance-fuelled middle-aged angst. And all the action's gonna be captured on a frenetically-edited range of different film stocks! Got that? Hup! Hup! Hup!..."

Okay, so it's easy to make fun of Oliver Stone, but then, the guy does keep on making basically the same movie. This time the subject is the brutal world of fictitious American football team the Miami Sharks. Possibly the most "Oliver-Stoney" Oliver Stone movie to date, Pacino essentially plays the director himself, as a hard-drinking football coach who must reverse the Sharks' losing streak, while the predictably underwritten ice maiden comes in the form of Diaz' ball-breaking club owner.

One of the film's principal critiques of the game is that, while most of the players are black, the people in control are white. Of course, this would have had more substance were it not for the fact that the best lines go to Pacino and James Woods, the latter plumbing new depths as the team's drug-dispensing doctor.

Yet, despite the film's multifarious faults, which also include a truly rotten cameo from Stone himself as a sports commentator, there can be no argument that this is one of the most visually exciting experiences you will have this year, as the audience is dragged so close to the action that it is possible to hear every grunt, feel every injury and almost taste every drop of spilt blood.

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Average user rating for Any Given Sunday

Awe some.

Amazing drama. Masterpiece. Really cool ... More

Posted by nc_jj at 06:00, 25 July 2008 | Report This Post

Made me care.

I ended up caring more about Stone's fictitious american football team than i've ever cared about any real sporting event in my life. ... More

Posted by Tindum at 16:23, 18 June 2008 | Report This Post

Made me care.

I ended up caring more about Stone's fictitious american football team than i've ever cared about any real sporting event in my life. ... More

Posted by Tindum at 16:21, 18 June 2008 | Report This Post

BONE CRUNCHINGLY AWESOME!!!!

Love this movie. Has to be one of the better american football movies available in my opinion. I mean one guy get's tackled and his fuckin eye pops out!!! Mental stuff! ... More

Posted by tallaght24 at 12:55, 29 April 2008 | Report This Post

Any Given Sunday

Sneaking in under the radar while Oliver Stone's more bombastic political fare was roaring its message from the roof-tops, Any Given Sunday is as typical of its creator as the recent World Trade Centre was a departure. Big, loud, brash and as exciting a film as you're ever likely to see, this charts the usual course of struggle, failure, redemption and eventual victory. Yet the whole thing is pulled off with such style and panache that the normal cliches, while present, don't feel half as tired ... More

Posted by Eomer_King at 13:10, 12 November 2006 | Report This Post

RE: Absolutely under-rated

The review doesn't read as a 4-star. Hmmmm. Anyways, I haven't seen this film yet and I'm heading out to buy it NOW. Promise. ... More

Posted by Monkey Wrench at 13:28, 12 June 2006 | Report This Post

RE: Absolutely under-rated

What StatoStatoStato said.uperb film. Superb cast. Just plain superb. ... More

Posted by AgentGoth at 08:54, 12 June 2006 | Report This Post

Absolutely under-rated

Take it from me, this movie RULES-Director's cut or not...this movie has the potential of being so much more. Stellar performances from Pacino and Foxx, this movie is a prime example of what Oliver Stone does best-holding a mirror at a subject and observe-this time, media, fame, power and greed ... More

Posted by StatoStatoStato at 15:21, 10 June 2006 | Report This Post

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