Review of Any Given Sunday (1999) by Laurence G — 03 Aug 2017

A good look into a professional football franchise and how it operates in dealing with a highly aggressive group characters physically and mentally. Although the storyline is not that interesting, what attracts me to the film is how a professional team deals with medical ethics and business ethics towards the players, staff and community.

The movie is highly testosterone driven and it never slows down the aggression until the end. With Al Pacino character leading most of the casts pace, some of the actors overacts to show aggression to the point were it gets comical than serious.

Other areas were Oliver Stone shows aggression was the editing. The 1 second cutback scenes and stock footage coming in and out of scenes were a little distracting, but I think they were used right on some parts.

I can't think of any sports movie prior to 1999 that takes the audience in first person view during the games and I think this is what makes the action sequences work. Some standouts are Jaimie fox and Cameron Diaz.

They did a good job showing their acting chops in the film. Overall good look into the visceral world of professional football.