Product Description

Life is a contact sportProductInformationIn Any Given Sunday life is a contact sport and football is life whenthree-time Academy Award-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone and a dynamicacting ensemble explore the fortunes of the Miami Sharks.  Atthe 50-yard line of this gridiron cosmos is Al Pacino as Tony D'Amatothe embattled Sharks coach facing a full-on blitz of team strife plus anew marketing-savvy Sharks owner (Cameron Diaz) who's sure Tony is waytoo Old School.  An injured quarterback (Dennis Quaid) aflashy bull-headed backup QB (Jamie Foxx) a slithery team doctor(James Woods) and a running back with an incentive-laden contract (LLCool J) also provide some of the stories that zigzag like diagrams in aplaybook.  The Director's Cut includes special features foryour DVD player and your DVD-ROM PC.Product Features Documentary Full Contact:  The Making ofAny Given Sunday LL Cool J Shut 'Em Down Music Video Interactive Menus Notes on the Stars and Director Theatrical Trailer Scene AccessEnhanced DVD-ROM PC Features: Web Events Chat-Room Access and Website Links Movie Review "Scoreboard" Original Theatrical Website Sampler TrailersSpecifications Stars:  Al Pacino CameronDiaz Dennis Quaid Format:  Color DVD-VideoWidescreen Languages:  English Subtitles:  English French Rating:  R Number of Discs: 1 Run Time:  157 minutes Directed By: Oliver Stone

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29450 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Bros
• Released on: 2000-09-01
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Special Edition, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .0" h x .0" w x .0" l, .20 pounds
• Running time: 150 minutes

Amazon.com
Any Given Sunday, Oliver Stone's salute-cum-exposé of pro football, belabors some pretty obvious points for nigh onto three hours; but between the frenetic editing, the pounding rap-music beats, and several flashy performances, it's certainly never dull. Al Pacino, coach of the fictional Miami Sharks (the NFL declined involvement in this production), struggles with the most time-honored of sports movie dilemmas: what to do with the old friend who's past his prime and the young hotshot who could save the franchise but first has to learn what being a team player is all about. Comedian Jamie Foxx does a marvelous dramatic turn as the rookie quarterback whose ego and talent are equally impressive, while Pacino seems more at ease in Oliver Stone Land than any actor since regular James Woods (on hand as well as a sleazy team doctor). Prowling the sidelines, shouting spittle-flecked orders, seizing up in almost physical pain when a play goes the wrong way, Pacino is as unashamedly--and entertainingly--hyperbolic as Stone's whirling montages of boiling storm clouds, bloodthirsty fans, and players smashed into the mud. (Once again football, perhaps the most sophisticated of team sports, is viewed cinematically as a bunch of guys hitting each other in slow motion.) Unfortunately, all the self-conscious mythologizing and pumped-up macho posturing that Stone can muster doesn't conceal a clichéd, slapped-together script, whose few good ideas (mostly about race in America) jostle about with several hoary, terrible ones--including a too-literal analogy of football players as modern gladiators. (To drive the point home, Stone includes Charlton Heston--the aging Ben-Hur--in one of many star-powered cameos.) All in all, Any Given Sunday is never dull, but never very enjoyable, either. --Bruce Reid

DVD features
"First and Goal: The Making of Any Given Sunday" was originally broadcast as an HBO "First Look" featurette. It tries, with mixed results, to match the frenetic, multiformat aesthetic of Oliver Stone's film, but the interviews are worth a look. Unfortunately, Al Pacino is conspicuously absent. As for Stone's director's cut, the previously unseen footage--consisting of extraneous gridiron violence and gratuitous nudity in a post-victory party scene--adds little to the film.

From The New Yorker
In Oliver Stone's pro-football movie, everything happens at once: the ball is snapped, thighs churn, bodies lock together, and, as the coach screams, an arm is raised to throw the ball. Stone takes us so deep inside the action that we feel we're being threshed by the teeth of a machine. This is an overwrought, exhausting movie, but at least Stone's instincts as an entertainer have revived. The movie is ostensibly a protest against corporate control of sport but is itself a prime example of corporate art. With Al Pacino, haggard and magnificent, as the aging, traditionalist coach Tony D'Amato; Dennis Quaid as the star quarterback who, in his late thirties, is fading fast; Jamie Foxx as the young hot shot who wants to replace him, and who must be taught to play not just for himself but for the team; Cameron Diaz as the blond-bitch team owner; and football great Lawrence Taylor as a defensive genius who risks maiming himself. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker