Any Given Sunday

This is the best sports film I’ve ever seen. It has a riveting pace, one quick shot followed by another, Stone almost doesn't let the viewer breathe, helped by a wonderful soundtrack. Al Pacino gives an acting tour de force, as we are used to him. Who surprised me, however, was Cameron Diaz, who is not far behind him, and also the lesser-known black actor Jamie Foxx, who received praise from Al Pacino himself. Stone splurges on directorial ideas, for example, in one scene he composes shots from Ben Hur into the picture, it's crazy, but it works. It’s hard to describe it with words, you have to see it. I tried the DVD option of watching the film without any sounds, with only the soundtrack, and believe me, it was still a ride. (02/09/2002)

I don't know anything about American football, but this movie really got me. I don't know how Oliver Stone managed to cram such a quality cast into one film. The script is also great, although it's not about American football per se, but rather the rottenness in the background. And the game sequences are some of the best action scenes I've ever seen. (21/09/2002)

The matches themselves have the right energy, the actors are good, Stone carries the whole thing off convincingly, but somehow it lacks something to pull you in. As a result, Any Given Sunday is nothing but an interesting addition to the endless row of sports dramas. (15/08/2007)

I don’t know the rules of American football, I don’t watch it and I don’t support any club, but this movie has a magic about it. Stone obviously had fun making this, because he serves us up one director’s delicacy after another. Additionally, the action is excellently filmed and the dialogs are so powerful that electrons were jumping out of the screen at me. Also, Al Pacino gives one of his best performances and his stirring speech for the final game is one of his most unforgettable. + Cameron Diaz plays the perfect bitch. + A great soundtrack, mixed excellently to fit the movie. (30/07/2009)

The first half hour can be classified among the strongest film moments I have ever seen. The grandiosely shot match, combined with the intense music and fantastic direction by Oliver Stone, grabs you in a way that is unprecedented. When you add a great screenplay, perfect action camera work, and brutally edited match scenes where mud and blood splatter onto the camera, you get one of the biggest hits of the season with not only captivating visuals but also a strong message if you know to read between the lines. (30/12/2004)

This film is top of the line in terms of sports movies, a two and a half hour video clip with a plot, a showcase of well written and without exception well acted characters. With all this, Any Given Sunday won me over. Although I prefer classic rugby (which, as John Cleese said, "is a lot like American 'football' but there are no rest breaks every twenty seconds and the teams don't wear full Kevlar armor like a bunch of cowards"), the film had me engrossed virtually from the opening close-up on the ball. From then on, I was just enjoying myself. Al Pacino's coaching reincarnation, Foxx's dude, Quaid's wounded "veteran", Woods' doctor hiding his injury, Cameron Diaz in the first role I in which I really believed in her... The people who chose the music for the film did a 100% honest job, as did Oliver Stone, the screenwriters and the cameramen. If I had to pick the best scene, it would probably be the Pacino+Foxx dialogue interspersed with snippets of racing and rowing from Ben Hur. At the end of the final match scene, I tensed up in my chair, hardly breathing. How do these filmmakers do it? (05/07/2011)

Even though the story is actually incredibly simple and the whole thing is presented like a classic sports movie, where you have to go from losses to victories, Oliver Stone directed the film in such a way that it just grips you. In the end, I was just tensely watching how it would all turn out, even though it was clear, and it's precisely for this ability to grip you that I give it the rating I do. (15/06/2016)