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| Al Pacino, Cameron Diaz, Dennis Quaid,
Jamie Foxx, LL Cool J, James Woods, Matthew Modine |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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Tony
D'Amato (Al Pacino): You're a goddamn quarterback! You know what
that means? It's the top spot, kid. It's the guy who takes the fall.
It's the guy everybody's looking at first -- the leader of a team --
who will support you when they understand you. Who will break their
ribs and their noses and their necks for you, because they believe.
'Cause you make them believe. That's a quarterback.
The
trials and tribulations of players, coach and management of major league
football team on a losing streak.
 Oliver
Stone pulls few punches in his insider's look at professional football,
and his impressive technical prowess makes the explosive sports matches
exciting, intimidating and hugely violent. He also has a great eye for
the behind-the-scenes management problems and player conflicts, mostly
arising from the huge business professional sports have become in the
TV age. This incisive but mostly unsurprising insight into this world
provides the dramatic scenes with some interest, as the many narrative
lines fail to build into any truly convincing drama in spite of a strong
cast. Pacino does his overly familiar intense shouting act, while Cameron
Diaz fails to register strongly in an underdeveloped part. The true
standout is Dennis Quaid, whose performance as an injured star quarterback
has just the right amount of pathos to make him a sympathetic character.
All told, the football scenes give the film its drive and its energy
for those who can handle so much of it, but Stone fails to go the extra
yard and give his sports exposé a dramatic backbone strong enough
to carry its protracted length. |
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A
single-disc release of the film is available for Region 1 carrying the
theatrical cut, and a two-disc 'extended director's cut' with many extras
is out for Region 1 and 2, both separately and as part of the Oliver
Stone Collection box set. The two-disc director's cut releases served
as a basis for this review.
The
anamorphic widescreen image is framed at an aspect ratio of approx.
2.35:1. The transfer was reviewed very positively at the time of this
DVD's first release, but it doesn't hold up very well today.
The Dolby
Digital 5.1 sound mix is
The
two-disc director's version release doesn't carry as many features as
most double-platters released today do, but with its double commentaries,
deleted scenes, featurette and advanced DVD-ROM features, this release
still offers excellent value. Probably the most compelling is producer/director
Oliver Stone's audio commentary track, which runs for the full
150 minutes of the feature's length, hardly pausing even to take a breath,
and never short on opinions, backgrounds, insights, annoyances and football
trivia. As those familiar with Stone's numerous other commentaries will
know, it's almost always fun to listen to Stone's rants, even for those
who rarely agree with him. The second commentary track is listed in
the menu screen as one by 'cast and crew', but it turns out to be a
solo track from star Jamie Foxx. His remarks, interrupted as they are
by frequent long pauses, are much less riveting than Stone's, and the
two really should have been edited together into one track dominated
by Stone with occasional asides from Foxx. His track however does offer
an alternative angle on the film's production that's entertaining even
if it fails to hold the interest for the entire length of the feature.
Disc 2 carries the rest of the extras, starting with a fairly solid
featurette that covers the basics on the film's production history.
Also present are Jamie Foxx's audition tapes, in which he demonstrates
his reasonable skill on the football field as well as his ability to
play a short scene convincingly. Foxx fans will find more of interest
in three music videos that feature the popular star. Main point
of interest on this disc however are the deleted and extended scenes
with optional audio commentary from Stone. They shed more light on the
numerous sub-plots happening on the fringes of the movie's main narrative
thrust, and offer some excellent acting moments from some of the cast
members. The production's gag reel offers some amusement,
and a selection of trailers is also on board. Finally, DVD-ROM
features include the Scoreboard (a collection of related articles and
reviews of the film), a Gridiron Challenge interactive game testing
your football knowledge, and the Warner theatrical trailer sampler (here
highlighting other Oliver Stone films) and the complete theatrical web
site. But more interesting is the Script-to-Screen feature that focuses
on two scenes in the movie, allowing the user to view the original script
for the scenes, flick through Stone's actual script notes and view the
rough cut all the way through to the final release version. Also fun
is a feature surprisingly not advertised by Warner much for this release,
the Virtual Edit Suite. Unfortunately, these DVD-ROM features are once
again Windows-only, so Mac users are once again s*** out of luck... The
animated main menu screen opens with an appropriately rapid selection
of cuts from games in the film, setting the tone for the feature and offering
easy access to the disc's options. Disc 2 has similar navigation.
Dan
Hassler-Forest
Reviewed: June
30, 2002
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