Wolff rating: NOT BAD
Plot summary: A few weeks in the life of a pro football team as it undergoes one problem after another.
Biased, pithy comments: Stone clearly set out to make the ultimate football movie along the lines of something noble and savage---he even quotes the more interesting parts of ``Ben Hur'' to smack us over the head with the analogy of football players to gladiators. It's an interesting character piece which is a combination of far too rushed and too long. The rushed part is the incredible cast, none of whom gets adequate time to do more than observe a single transition. It's a blur of emotional trauma that resembles the early few episodes of ``E.R.'' The too-long part is that to give the entire ensemble cast more than a passing touch, the movie has to run to two-and-a-half-hours-plus, which makes it just a hell of a lot of running around. I almost think that it would be better as an HBO series that would have time to mull over these characters, but have the daring to really skewer some of the most mercenary and heartless aspects of the game. Foxx really shines as the screwed-up quarterback, and Quaid, Woods, Brown, and Pacino fall into their parts like they were putting on old gloves. I liked Laurence Taylor, too, although he's short-shrifted a bit. You're struck throughout that it's hard to feel really sorry for some of these people---they knew the sacrifices when they started down the road towards sporting success, and they got some bad in there with all the good. At the end, though, you have another field-goal drive from Stone that just misses the uprights---never dull, but not quite focused enough to be astounding.
Other Notes: Many of the situations were lifted from a book by Rob Huizenga, who was a doctor for the Raiders. The book makes a good read---more consistent and interesting than this movie, although hardly as visceral. The creation of an entire new football league down to logos and fields and things is neat.
How many times I have seen it: x1
Starring: Al Pacino, Cameron Diaz, Dennis Quaid, Jamie Foxx, James Woods, LL Cool J, Jim Brown, and a dozen or so others.
Directed by: Oliver Stone