A SPORTS FILM THAT PLAYS WITH THE AUDIENCE...

Written by Dave Paniagua
Edited by Rob Alarcon

Cast: Al Pacino (Tony D'Amanto), Dennis Quaid (Jack Rooney), Jamie Foxx (Willie Beaman), Cameron Diaz (Christina Pagniacci), James Woods (Dr. Harvey Mandrake), LL Cool J (Julian Washington), Charlton Heston (Commissioner), Lauren Holly (Cindy Rooney), Bill Bellamy (Jimmy Sanderson), Tom Sizemore

Premise: A football quarterback legend for the Miami Sharks is knocked out of the game and a bench warmer is called upon to replace him, which forces the coach, D'Amanto, to start fresh with new strategies and change his time tested coaching methods. Overall Rating: 8.9 out of 10 Rated R for language, sexuality

The aging quarterback (Dennis Quaid) is injured. The third-stringer (Jamie Foxx) is given the ball. He sets up the play in formation. Looking, he passes the ball straight up the middle. Interception! And there goes another game for the Miami Sharks, a team on the verge of missing the playoffs and heading to Los Angeles if the team owner (Cameron Diaz) gets her way. Not if head coach Tony D'Amato (Al Pacnio) can help it.

And that's just the first 5 minutes of Oliver Stone's take on professional football, entitled Any Given Sunday. Stone, known widely for his unapologetic viewpoints on such issues as JFK and Vietnam, hits hard with MTV-style directing and believable performances from real-life athletes. Co-starring a whole army of celebrities, including LL Cool J, James Woods, Matthew Modine, Lauren Holly, and even Showgirls' Elizabeth Berkeley, the film is everything the game was, is, and will become in the next century.

While the National Football League declined to have their likeness or teams represented, the fictional Miami Sharks is just as good a representation of various real teams in the NFL. From the female team owner to an obnoxious sports writer, the movie has it all and then some. At a running time of roughly 3 hours, Any Given Sunday is not a walk in the park for people who don't have a love for the game. Despite that, it is easy to follow for even the guy next to you that can't stand to watch one game on TV.

Call it the downfall of the professional athlete. Jamie Foxx plays the third-stringer, Willie Beaman, who spends most of his time reading the paper while the other guys get all the play on the field. After Cap Rooney (Quaid) is injured and a lousy replacement doesn't do the job, Beaman steps in to save the day. Unfortunately, things don't run so smoothly. But Coach D'Amato has faith that things will turn around. And they do. The team goes on a winning streak, and that's when the inevitable downfall begins. Beaman grows an ego, loves everything about being in the spotlight, and accuses the coach of racism. In a very heated argument done nicely in Stone's patented direction, Beaman and D'Amato exchange comments on the world of football with the movie Ben-Hur cut in between it all.

This movie is loud. It is fast. It could make you dizzier than the people who said they felt the same way after the Blair Witch Project. But it is definitely one to watch. Athletes such as Lawrence Taylor don't ride in and pop out like most jocks in a movie. He really acts, and gives Beaman advice to watch himself and gain respect at the same time.

You won't probably see anything better than this. It beats Varsity Blues or anything Disney can throw at you in the form of a sports movie. A big congratulations for Stone not throwing in wacky JFK conspiracy sub-plots or something remotely like his bad film, U-Turn. Being that there was not one bad performance and everything worked near-perfectly, Any Given Sunday is almo st the greatest sports movie ever made, because nothing will beat the power, the brillance, and the awesome integrity unleashed in the Mighty Ducks!