Any Given Sunday is a brutal, uncompromising look at the world of pro football. It's never subtle—in either its performances or depictions—which unfortunately is what ultimately hamstrings it.

Oliver Stone over-directs the hell out of this movie. From its frequent cuts to its odd insertions of clips from other films, Any Given Sunday is full on cinematic whiplash. 

For the actual football scenes, that chaos works. For everything else, not so much. In fact, Stone's insistence of seizure-inducing framing only detracts from the exceptional acting.

And the cast of Any Given Sunday is stacked. Most notably, it boasts Al Pacino as aging coach Tony D'Amato and Jamie Foxx as upstart quarterback Willie Beamen, but it also features Cameron Diaz, John C. McGinley, Ann-Margret, LL Cool J, Lawrence Taylor, Jim Brown, and many more.

Despite those issues, this is a quintessential football movie. And, fittingly, in a game that leaves many a good man battered and broken, there are few heroes here.

Now, sit back, sack a few Land Shark Lagers, and don't get strokes, give them! I, the Thunderous Wizard (@WriterTLK), Capt. Cash, and Bling Blake are still spinning like your favorite CD!

This Week’s Segments:

• Introduction/Plot Breakdown – Life is a contact sport! (00:00)


• Lingering Questions – The Double Turn Podcast hit their bonus stats, and then we discuss who we'd start in the Pantheon Cup. (45:15)


• The "Steamin' Beamen" Trivia Challenge – Bling Blake challenges the field to trivia about the movie. (1:17:16)


• Recommendations – We offer our picks for the week and next up: We kickoff Hops and Boohaha with The Blackening! (1:30:30)

And, as always, hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram to check out all the interesting factoids—the legendary career of LT and more—from this week’s episode!

You can find this episode of Hops and Box Office Flops on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Podbean, Spotify, Acast, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, Vurbl, Amazon Music, and more!