![]() ![]() The only replacement he has is an untried kid named Willie Beamen (Jamie Foxx), who turns out to have a gift for the game but also a selfish arrogance and a weakness for the blandishments of fame. NFL veterans like Jim Brown playing defensive coordinator Montezuma Monroe and Lawrence Taylor as defensive captain Luther “Shark” Lavay also get in the act, and Stone has even given himself a cameo as a TV color commentator. McGinley), the long-suffering girlfriend (Lela Rochon), the scheming wife (Lauren Holly), the running back in love with his own statistics (LL Cool J), the ruthless team orthopedist (James Woods) and the more idealistic internist (Matthew Modine). Fleshing out the picture are lots of awfully familiar roles, like the craven sportswriter (John C. And his veteran quarterback, Jack “Cap” Rooney (Dennis Quaid), is out of action with a serious injury. Never mind that the coach has sacrificed family and friends to football, never mind that he truly believes “this game has got to be about more than winning.” Christina Pagniacci (Cameron Diaz), who owns the team along with her alcoholic mother, Margaret (Ann-Margret), thinks he’s lost a step. The eye of the hurricane is Tony D’Amato (Al Pacino), the Sharks’ veteran coach who is under pressure on and off the field. Those gritty Miami Sharks, whose black uniforms and “Whatever It Takes” motto bring the Oakland Raiders to mind, are the film’s focus. The NFL, scared of its own shadow when it comes to the possibility of less than worshipful treatment, did not cooperate with “Any Given Sunday,” so the film had to come up with its own league (Associated Football Franchises of America), its own Super Bowl (the Pantheon Cup), even its own teams, complete with wacky uniforms and names like the Rhinos, the Crusaders and the Sharks. This energetic and diverting sports soap opera throws a few head fakes in the direction of an iconoclastic examination of the dark side of professional football, but at the end of the day it comes out squarely for, hold onto your hats, the rewards of teamwork and unselfish behavior. Think of the Oliver Stone-directed “Any Given Sunday” as a fan’s notes. ( Read more of Kenneth Turan’s 1996 review) ‘Any Given Sunday’Īpple TV+ (Rent/Buy) | Prime Video (Rent/Buy) ![]() Even fellow directors Barbet Schroeder and Jerzy Skolimowski are featured in brief bits. So singer Tom Jones and his hit “It’s Not Unusual” get prominently featured, as do blaxploitation veterans Jim Brown and Pam Grier. Fox as a pair of rival television journalists who help break the invasion story.Īnd, just like Ed Wood, Burton likes to gather together unexpected actors he for one reason or another has developed a fondness for. Lots of recognizable names make little more than cameo appearances in “Mars Attacks!,” including Glenn Close and Natalie Portman as the president’s family, Martin Short as his press secretary, Danny DeVito as an irate Vegas gambler, and Sarah Jessica Parker and Michael J. Why it was thought sane to invest a reported $100 million in such an odd and particular sensibility is a question even Martians might ponder. Probably the most expensive movie ever to be inspired by a set of bubble gum cards, “Mars Attacks!” is also Tim Burton at his Tim Burton-est, which means that it’s a kind of hipster stunt, with bursts of mild humor outnumbered by a retro taste for the bizarre and the weird. Now, with “Mars Attacks!,” Burton has in effect remade “Plan 9 From Outer Space,” Wood’s signature work, on a budget. ![]() Wood Jr.īest known as the director of the first two “Batman” pictures, Burton a few years back made “Ed Wood,” a loving homage to the 1950s filmmaker considered a colossus of ineptitude for making his own peculiar movies his own peculiar way. ![]() Some directors envy Alfred Hitchcock’s feeling for suspense, John Ford’s way with westerns or perhaps Ernst Lubitsch’s sly romantic touch. Prime Video (Rent/Buy) | Apple TV + (Rent/Buy) ![]()
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