I have to confess that I wasn’t very enthusiastic about watching this film, as I knew it was based around American Football. It’s not that I have anything in particular against American Football. It’s just that I’ve never watched the game and have absolutely no idea about the rules of the game. However, with a cast including the great Al Pacino and Cameron Diaz (and a recommendation from Dug). I figured it would be worth giving it a try.
The film is based on the fictional football team ‘The Miami Sharks’. They are on a losing streak, having lost the last four games in a row. When their star quarterback Cap Rooney (Dennis Quaid) is seriously injured a young unknown replacement named Willie Beamen (Jamie Foxx) is put on. He proved to be a real star over the next few games but is a real renegade who doesn’t work with the team or listen to the coach.
The ageing coach of the team is Tony D’Amato (Al Pacino). He’s struggling to hold the team together and is also having real problems with his personal life. He’s also struggling with the team manager Christina Pagniacci (Cameron Diaz) who is more into marketing and making money than the actual game of football itself.
Ultimately the film progresses to the playoff game with the Dallas Knights, where several decisions need to be made. Will the coach play Cap Rooney or Willie Beamen, will Willie look out for his own career or play for the team and will Christina sell the team out to make more money or show some dedication to the game
I have to say that the picture quality on this disk is superb. The colours are very strong and rich and the 2.35:1 anamorphic print was faultless (as far as I could see). The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is also excellent with a lot of use of the surround channels, particularly in the stadium scenes. The soundtrack also make a lot of use of the subwoofer channel with a lot of load pumping rap tracks.
There’s not a huge amount of extras on this disk. There’s a making of documentary, some cast & crew bios, a theatrical trailer and a music video by LL Cool J. Not the biggest list of extras I’ve ever seen but I guess at least they made the effort to add something.
To my surprise I did actually quite enjoy this film, it’s definitely not one of my all time favourites but it’s worth a watch. The first thirty minutes did put me off because it’s all football, but if you persevere then the characters start to build up and you get more absorbed into the story.
There’s also some great acting here, Al Pacino is excellent as the rough and tumble coach and Cameron Diaz plays the power hungry manager very well too. Other performances worth mentioning are LL Cool J and Jamie Foxx. There’s some excellent camera work in places too. In the heat of a game you really get a feel for what it must be like as one of the players.
There’s one scene I would complain heavily about. Without giving too much away (I Hope) it concerns a players eye. I felt this scene was overly gruesome, totally unnecessary and it didn’t fit in with the overall style of the film. Apart from that I will give this a slightly better than average 3.5.