"Ask 100 fans to name their favorite football movie, and you'll probably get at least 30 different responses, from comedy-dramas such as "The Longest Yard" (both Burt Reynolds and Adam Sandler versions), "Semi-Tough" (1977), "Varsity Blues" (1999), and "The Waterboy" (1998) to earnest dramas including "Knute Rockne, All American" (1940), as well as "We Are Marshall" (2006), "The Express: The Ernie Davis Story" (2008), "The Blind Side" (2009), and "Concussion" (2015)."
"This is one of those "alternate universe" football films, set in the fictional AFFA (Affiliated Football Franchises of America) and featuring teams with entertainingly goofy names such as the Chicago Rhinos, the Washington Lumbermen, the Kansas Twisters, and the Wisconsin Icemen. Still, storylines such as the thread about an unscrupulous team physician (James Woods) carry real-world impact, and the football scenes deliver a visceral wallop."
Fans name dozens of favorite football films spanning comedy-dramas like The Longest Yard, Semi-Tough, Varsity Blues, and The Waterboy, and earnest dramas such as Knute Rockne, All American, We Are Marshall, The Express, The Blind Side, and Concussion. Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday runs two hours and forty-two minutes and is filmed with war-movie energy, whip pans, hyperreal action sequences, handheld camerawork, and slow motion. The screenplay uses familiar football clichés — the devoted coach versus the calculating owner and an aging quarterback replaced by a younger showboat — but the star-studded cast sells the material. Any Given Sunday is set in a fictional AFFA with whimsically named teams, includes a subplot about an unscrupulous team physician, and features football scenes that deliver a visceral impact. Remember the Titans retains a complicated legacy.
Read at Roger Ebert
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