"Any Given Sunday" is a movie about pro football and it's directed by Oliver Stone. It's an unusual topic for Stone, that's for sure...but he handles it well.

The film is about a pro team, the Miami Sharks. The team is good but struggling lately. However, an end to their doldrums appears in the form of their third-string quarterback (Jamie Foxx). However, this quarterback also has the distinction of rubbing his teammates the wrong way, as his ego is definitely an issue. Will they make it to the playoffs after all?

The film is sort of like a behind the scene look at football...warts and all. I appreciate how the film talks about debilitating injjuries and head trauma, though it's incredibly ironic that the player who is particularly struggling with this is played by Lawrence Taylor, as guy who in real life seems like the poster child for Chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

All in all, very well made and worth seeing. My only complaint is that the film is in some ways quite predictable...though well acted.

When Oliver Stone isn't flaunting wild conspiracy theories, he actually gets down to the business of making some really good films. And Any Given Sunday is definitely one of those.

It's a difficult perspective for me to write about this movie as my favorite spectator sport is baseball rather than football. But the business end of it is virtually the same. Curiously enough I was in Miami last week and saw the Florida Marlins home opener. They are going through some of the same dealings with the Miami city fathers about a new stadium that you see Cameron Diaz having with Clifton Davis in this film. There's a possibility that Miami will not have its major league baseball franchise soon.

Cameron Diaz is the young owner of the Miami Sharks professional football team who inherited it from her late father who is described as one of the prominent owners in the sport, a kind of combination of Wellington Mara and George Halas. Her father gave Coach Al Pacino complete latitude to deal with his players, but Cameron is taking George Steinbrenner as her role model.

Al Pacino joins the ranks of players who have done outstanding portrayals of athletic coaches. It's an honorable tradition going back to Pat O'Brien as Knute Rockne. I'm not sure how Rockne would have done in the era of seven figure salaries, but Pacino is adapting the best way he can.

When I was a kid in NYC in the fifties following our three major league baseball teams, one of the great constants was Casey Stengel winning that American League pennant for the New York Yankees with Yogi Berra behind the plate. The catcher's job is similar to the quarterback's in football in that he sees the whole game and actually sets the pace in calling the pitches. As Yogi's skills deteriorated over time, Casey could never quite pull the plug on him as the regular catcher. As a result, Elston Howard who would have been a regular on any other team never amassed the statistics that probably would have put him in the Hall of Fame.

Pacino has that kind of dilemma here. A veteran quarterback in Dennis Quaid and an up and coming talent in Jamie Fox. Quaid's skills are deteriorating, but he has the heart of a warrior which Pacino tells him in my favorite moment in the film. And the lesson Fox learns from Pacino and Quaid is that if the team doesn't respect you, you don't lead winners. And winning is the bottom line.

There are a whole lot of good performances here in minor roles, the hallmark of a great film. James Woods as the slimy team doctor, Ann-Margret as Cameron Diaz's mother, LL Cool J as a defensive lineman who may have taken one hit too many. And what a casting coup Oliver Stone pulled off in getting Charlton Heston for a small role as the football commissioner. Who better to run professional football than the guy who brought the Ten Commandments down from Mount Sinai.

I think even non-sports fans can appreciate this film.

Willie Beamen (Jamie Foxx) is the third string quarterback on the losing Miami Sharks coached by Tony D'Amato (Al Pacino) and owned by Christina Pagniacci (Cameron Diaz). Injuries force Beamen to enter the game and surprise everybody with his performance.

Oliver Stone is using his directing skills in this aggressive show of testosterone overload. That aggression never lets up and the result is a tiring experience. The extreme close up, the sharp cuts, the heart pumping action all drive the movie close to the edge and then over it. There is a lot to admire about Oliver Stone. Sometimes I wish he relax on the reins a little and let the story breathe. The other problem I have is that Al Pacino doesn't seem to do much coaching other than yelling and making speeches. He's a movie cliché. However, the cast is fill with top rank performers. They can outshout any problems with the characters.