Pun Salad

I never got around to seeing this movie when it was current, and I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I was very pleasantly surprised.

I don't have a lot of fondness for Oliver Stone, but he obviously coaxed about a dozen great performances from the actors here, and helped write a nifty screenplay. It's actually a pretty old-fashioned movie about redemption and teamwork, leavened with modern touches of profanity, nudity, and drug use. And it's really funny in spots.

Everyone's worth watching. Special bonuses are Jim Brown and Lawrence Taylor in sizeable roles, and Y. A. Tittle, Warren Moon, Johnny Unitas, and Dick Butkus in minor ones. In a cute moment, Al Pacino has the Ben Hur chariot race playing during a dinner meeting with Jamie Foxx; later in the movie, Charleton Heston turns up as the football league commisioner.