imagine watching the superbowl , it's a goal line stand with four seconds left in the game . the tension is palpable as you clench and unclench your hands into fists , waiting for the final play . then , just as the play commences , you're surrounded by blaring rap music and the screen suddenly cuts to a bunch of people in the stands beating each other up . this seems to be the way oliver stone pictures football . i'm sure some will call his filming ideas here moden and innovative , but i think obnoxious is a more fitting adjective . stone's idea of direction seems to involve the camera never sitting still for more than two seconds at a time , and never allowing people to speak without pounding music accompanying them which drowns out all that they say . the miami sharks are having a terrible season . led by head coach tony d'amato ( al pacino ) and aging quarterback cap rooney ( dennis quaid ) , they've lost their past four games . the team's owner has just passed away and left things in the hands of his money grubbing daughter , christina pagniacci ( cameron diaz ) . chistina wants to permanently bench cap after he is injured , and place third stringer willie beaman ( jamie foxx ) at the head of the team . the problem is , the team doesn't much respect beaman despite his skills . tony tries desperately to bring the team back together as everything he has worked to build crumbles around him . after watching this film , something interesting occured to me . i haven't enjoyed a single movie which ll cool j ( playing the team's star running back here ) has appeared in , yet i've found his performance in each of his films to be rather entertaining . the man is not without talent , but he doesn't seem capable of selecting a good film to appear in . as for the rest of the cast , they most likely would have performed well if it weren't for some of the worst dialogue ever written . then again , i'm only assuming that all the dialogue was terrible . i couldn't hear half of it because the " music " was playing so loudly . on those rare occasions when the film actually tries to deliver a message , we're interrupted by a cutaway to clouds moving across the sky or something similarly pointless . i always try to point out the good qualities in every film i see , but i'm hard pressed to do so here . lawrence taylor , the hall of famer shows up playing the team's linebacker and actually turns in one of the film's better performances . james woods shows up in what amounts to little more than a cameo as the team doctor , and charleton heston is seen briefly playing the commisioner . the final game of the movie is vaguely interesting , despite being incredibly predictable . that about does it for the good points here . the remainder of the film is composed of pointless pop culture references , music videos and inane speeches . " any given sunday " runs insanely long at 162 minutes . don't worry though , you won't fall asleep because the music will constantly be pounding in your ears . i'd recommend the film only if you're a die hard fan of either oliver stone or al pacino , although pacino appears rather embarassed to be in this movie . the movie contains a rather amusing little twist at the very end , but it's shown during the credits . good luck staying through the rest of the film to catch it . i give " any given sunday " one and a half stars and a recommendation to stay far , far away . feel free to e-mail with comments at : <a href= " mailto : jabii@aol . com " >jabii@aol . com</a> * * * * * - one of the greatest movies ever made , see it now . * * * * - great flick . try and catch this one . * * * - okay movie , hits and misses . * * - pretty bad . see it if you've got nothing better to do . * - one of the worst movies ever . see it only if you enjoy pain . 
