ANY GIVEN SUNDAY

"After spending a decade and a half applying a blow torch to the belly of financial institutions (Wall Street), presidential politics (JFK & Nixon) and manipulative and duplicitous media (Natural Born Killers), Oliver Stone has focused his proven talent for vivisection on the world of big time American football. On the surface, the rogue's gallery Stone has assembled - the harried coach facing a career meltdown, the veteran player forced to make room for the younger model, the arrogant team doctor who thinks nothing of sending a seriously injured player back on the field, and even the cynical sports writer peddling a bucketful of contempt - may look like they've been cobbled together from a thousand old sports movies, but as his early films readily testify, the director has never been one for suffering stereotypes gladly. Stone's goal here is to illustrate how what once was a fairly uncomplicated game which wore its mantles of integrity and loyality with considerable pride, has become a corporate juggernaut being run along tracks greased with unbridled greed and corruption. It's a complex, cacophonous world where egos need more massaging than hamstrings and every touchdown is accompanied by the unmistakable ping of the cash register ringing up another sale. To orchestrate this furiously paced, overblown homage to capitalism and testosterone, Stone's restless cameras employ nervous jump cuts to carry the viewer from the inner sanctum of the noisy boardroom, to the charged atmosphere of the locker room, and finally on to the thundering, Dolby-accented Sturm und Drung of the on-field battle itself. It looks like a logistical nightmare but Stone and his terrific cast pull it off magnificently."
Leo Cameron

"In many ways, this is a marginal movie. It depends so much on a clear understanding of, and empathy for, the kind of devotion that many Americans have for their football - it's a complicated feeling which is not replicated in many other sports or countries. To many Americans, it will probably seem like Oliver Stone has captured something essential about their character. To many other cinema-goers, particularly those outside the USA, it will probably look like predictable masturbation. There is certainly enough to maintain interest at a superficial level. Stone has crafted some thumping stretches of on-field action which undoubtedly extend the cinematic approach to sport. The cast give overall solid performances, though the idea of Cameron Diaz as a football team owner is a paradox which hints at a "jobs-for-the-girls" approach. In the end, it is the characters themselves who fail to offer much hope. Outside football, they are nothing. They have no life, they have no income, they have no knowledge, they have no history. Even those characters who come across as having some kind of soul are still tied to a formula which is essentially heartless. If they were soldiers, it may come across as noble. In this case, it comes across as pitiful. Oliver Stone normally asks a lot of his audience. In this instance, he doesn't ask for much. There are no lingering questions, there are no loose ends, there is no questioning of possibilities. Coming from a man who has such a strong history of pushing the boundaries of social history in the way Oliver Stone has, it's plain disappointing."
Anthony Mason