Any Given Sunday Reviews
Top Critic
Almost three hours of this jitter deteriorates from bravura filmmaking to annoying mannerism, and Any Given Sunday ends up less than the sum of its many, often interesting parts.
Choc-a-bloc with manly blather about sacrifice and honour and rugged individuals pulling together for the greater glory of the team.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
Pass the popcorn and then the testosterone.
| Original Score: 3/4
The film is restless to the point of distraction, and the audio is so pumped up that about a third of the dialogue is unintelligible.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
Stone's latest isn't his worst, but it's still a mess.
A turbocharged and pungently enjoyable take on the sport.
Any Given Sunday has the dubious distinction of being the very first football picture to treat the audience like it's the football.
Bombastic, overblown and -- despite its many flaws -- compelling entertainment.
Stone is at last in an arena where his penchant for overstatement is a virtue, not a defect.
Performances are almost all shot through with electricity.
Sunday is the latest example of this year's worst movie trend, in which hyperstylist directors attempt to force their way through flawed, poorly developed stories by 'showing their stuff.'
It's super revved up, high-intensity tedium all right, but tedium nonetheless.
Yes, it's that kind of a movie, and if you know what you're getting into, it's unlikely you'll be bored.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/5
One of the few football movies that really puts you in the action, conveying the ferocity and trauma of the game.
A frequently entertaining, rah-rah look at pro football.
Any Given Sunday makes a lot of noise, but to little effect.
Most interesting are images of dangerous play as the players themselves see it.
Stone never simply make a point when he can make it 50 times with a hammer to the forehead.
There's no shortage of color and vigor in this pumped-up movie.
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Action largely undifferentiated.
The sensation we get from the blizzard of images and teeth-jarring sound effects is of having our head used as the football.
Probably the most predictable -- and blatantly commercial -- movie [Oliver Stone's] ever directed.
| Original Score: 2.5/4
We're reminded that very little movie material is original until actors transform it from cliches into particulars.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Raucous, violent, in-your-face and occasionally advancing like a punch to the belly.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
