Anybody who's watched more than a few football games or sports movies will find nothing redeeming here -- the football sequences, seeming as if they were written by someone who'd watched maybe three games, seem unrealistic. Scoring continuity problems, improbable coaching decisions and the Arena League-style uniforms destroy the film's authenticity.
A great cast is wasted. Rather than display the restraint that made his "Insider" performance so remarkable, Pacino is relegated to making those trademark windy, bravado-filled soliloquies that are almost caricatures within themselves. Matthew Modine and Aaron Eckhart are wasted in hackneyed roles. There are even cameos by Charlton Heston, Ann-Margaret, Jim Brown... but not a single burning building, hijacked plane or sinking vessel in sight. So it's not a disaster movie in the typical sense, but save a few comic moments -- such as Jamie Foxx's game-time vomiting ritual and James Woods' typically misogynistic turn as the team trainer -- "Any Given Sunday" is a fumble.
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