Any Given Sunday (1999) An NFL team on the brink of collapse after years of legendary success.  Their old school head coach must find a balance between the way the game used to be played and how modern players want to roll.  Along the way, there will be acts of genius and betrayal as they lurch towards the playoffs.

Directed by Oliver Stone

Starring Al Pacino, Dennis Quaid, Cameron Diaz, Jamie Foxx, LL Cool J, Jim Brown, Lawrence Taylor

Why I Liked It – Visually brilliant, tightly paced look at what goes on and off the football field.

Last week I talked about how great racing movies rise or fall based on how well they put the viewer into the driver’s seat.  “Any Given Sunday” has the same challenge in lifting a football movie beyond the usual.  Having Oliver Stone as your director is a great place to begin.  Stone is the rare director who can keep a movie going at a full boil without the lid coming off.  He doesn’t pull it off every time, but he has a clear habit of making movies that hold just shy of the explosion into chaos.   This movie is a textbook example.

Stone is blessed with a great cast of both actors and football players.  Pacino is brilliant as aging head coach Tony D’Amato, while Dennis Quaid gives us a football legend QB on the brink of his professional final whistle in Cap Rooney.  Cameron Diaz is solid but, for me, uninspiring as the team owner Christina Pagniacci, who inherited the team from her local icon father.  As I’ve mentioned before, Diaz is one of those actors who never clicks for me.  She holds up her end of the story well enough, so credit where credit is due.  Last but never least is Jamie Foxx as third-string quarterback Willie Beaman.  When the two players in front of him get knocked out of the same game, Beaman comes on and does enough for a second look.  As the last games of the season roll on, he gets better and better.  His ego is both his greatest weapon and his largest stumbling block on his way to victory.  Foxx is superlative in this role.  Kudos as well to LL Cool J as the veteran running back on the team, and Aaron Eckhart as the offensive coordinator expected to take D’Amato’s job at season’s end.

Beyond the acting talent, there’s an enormous list of former players in supporting roles.  From all-time greats like Jim Brown and Lawrence Taylor to stars across generations of players.  That list includes Y. A. Tittle and Johnny Unitas to Terrell Owens and Ricky Watters.  The on the field action is fast and violent.  It’s not a movie for those with tender ears either.  Football is a full-contact sport with a very mean streak built in.  The cast and director score on all those counts.

As I look back at the cast list, I realize that this is a true “spot the stars” movie.  The cameos and small role cast list is stunning.  Charlton Heston plays the league commissioner.  Also here are Elizabeth Berkley, John C. McGinley, Matthew Modine, Ann Margaret, and Lauren Holly.

My issues with the movie are that all these smaller characters take up screen time, which detracts in some ways from the center of the story.  Worse yet is a lame ending.  All that violent, chaotic energy screams into the final moments of the season.  We get the ending we want.  Except we don’t.  Stone comes back AFTER the playoffs to set up an ending that leaves one major character looking stupid, and another looking petty and small.  I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel about the characters, but it made me think less of Stone.  The ending is pyrrhic with undertones of misogyny for me.

Too bad.  There’s a lot to like here.

You can stream “Any Given Sunday” on Hulu TV, Sling TV, YouTube TV, Google TV, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home.

Rating – *** Worth A Look