Amazon.com video review:
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
Amazon.com video review:
While this monumental retrospective of Oliver Stone's directorial career
doesn't include Salvador or Platoon--Stone's early,
acknowledged masterpieces of history and remembrance--it certainly sheds some
light on the more controversial arc of his work ever since.
Beginning with 1987's Wall Street, Stone's barbed tragedy about
corporate raiders and blinding greed during the Reagan years, this cinematic
six-pack represents a curious odyssey of generational touchstones, outright
obsessions, and feverish experimentation. 1994's Natural Born
Killers, for instance, is an explosive critique of inflamed media in a
society of hapless onlookers. A wildly ambitious farce about two lovers who defy
TV-manufactured perceptions by becoming notorious murderers, Killers
pushes the limits of screen violence, visual literacy, and the mixed-media
technique (juggling film stocks, incorporating video, etc.) that Stone
introduced in JFK. If the result is somewhat cold and forced, it's also
brazen.
Most significant is the way this collection underscores Stone's drive to
fuse historical drama with lingering emotions about the past. Stone, a Vietnam
War vet, revisits that haunting debacle here in the masterful Born on the
Fourth of July. Yet some of his most famous efforts
still draw heaps of scorn for narrative hubris and factual recklessness.
(Does anyone really believe John F. Kennedy was assassinated during a
Lyndon Johnson coup d'état?) But time, as this collection proves,
is on Stone's side. Eventually, JFK and The Doors will be seen not
as a failed objective history, but as the experience of a tumultuous era in the
imagination of a man who lived through it all and can't shake it off.
The collection concludes with the unexpectedly entertaining football saga
Any Given Sunday. After this came Stone's humanitarian relief drama,
Beyond Borders (not included), which found the director on familiar
footing. As Stone's legacy continues to grow, there is a remarkable career
here to revisit with these six films. --Tom Keogh
Amazon.com video review:
While this monumental retrospective of Oliver Stone's directorial career
doesn't include Salvador or Platoon--Stone's early,
acknowledged masterpieces of history and remembrance--it certainly sheds light
on the more controversial arc of his work ever since.
Beginning with 1987's Wall Street, Stone's barbed tragedy about
corporate raiders and blinding greed during the Reagan years, this
cinematic 10-pack represents a curious odyssey of generational
touchstones, outright obsessions, and feverish experimentation. The minor, 1988
Talk Radio, for instance, introduced Stone's then-evolving critique of
inflamed media in a society of hapless onlookers. But it was 1994's
Natural Born Killers that exploded the theme in a wildly ambitious
farce concerning two lovers who defy manufactured perceptions by becoming
notorious murderers. Killers pushes the limits of screen violence,
visual literacy, and the mixed-media technique (juggling film stocks,
incorporating video, etc.) that Stone introduced in JFK. If the result is
cold and forced, it's also brazen.
Most significant is the way this collection underscores Stone's drive to
fuse historical drama with lingering emotions about the past. Stone, a
Vietnam War veteran, revisits that haunting debacle here in the masterful
Born on the Fourth of July and the moving Heaven & Earth.
Yet some of his most famous efforts still draw heaps of scorn for narrative
hubris and factual recklessness. (Does anyone really believe John F.
Kennedy was assassinated during a Lyndon Johnson coup d'état?) But
time is on Stone's side. Eventually, JFK, The Doors, and
Nixon will be seen not as a failed objective history, but as the
experience of a tumultuous era in the imagination of a man who lived
through it all and can't shake it off.
The collection concludes with the flawed contemporary noir U Turn and the
unexpectedly entertaining football saga Any Given Sunday.
Stone bided his time following this extraordinary body of work, until the
humanitarian relief drama Beyond Borders (not included) found the
director on familiar footing. As Stone's legacy continues to grow, there is a
remarkable career here to revisit with these 10 films. --Tom Keogh
