On any given Sunday, you might go to a theater and sit through a three hour movie, and still not know a damn thing about any character.

The latest release from Oliver Stone, “Any Given Sunday,” packs a boat-load of big-name actors onto the screen but, in turn, lacks the character development needed to engage the audience.

It is set around the Miami Sharks, a dwindling professional football team which, in its heyday four years earlier, won back-to-back championships.

Al Pacino plays Coach Tony D’Amato, a hard nosed, play-by-your-instincts kind of guy whose season isn’t living up to the past and getting the team nowhere in a hurry.

When his aging quarterback, “Cap” Rooney (Dennis Quaid), goes down and the backup gets hurt in the same game, the third-string quarterback, Willie Beaman (Jamie Foxx), is called in for action.

Naturally as a newcomer to pro football, Beaman sucks for a while. But after a few more games he starts to become good, then better, and before you know it, he’s leading his team to the playoffs and quickly becoming the most popular guy in the league.

Along with his new fame comes a bigger ego and a more rebellious way of doing things, such as changing the coaches plays in the huddle.

Conflict arises everywhere. Beaman and a number of his teammates, including L.L. Cool J and Lawrence Taylor, begin arguing and picking fights.

D’Amato and the team’s new owner, Christina Pagniacci (Cameron Diaz), begin arguing about the quarterback situation since Rooney is getting better and Pagniacci likes Beaman.

So after all sorts of hell breaks loose, the team tries to pull it together for the playoffs.

You can probably figure out the rest, but you may be wondering how the heck it takes three hours for this to take place. Lets just say a fifteen minute bathroom break wouldn’t cause you to miss much.

Don’t be deceived though; this is actually a pretty good football movie when compared to others such as “Varsity Blues.” But any Stone picture shouldn’t even be comparable to something like that.

You almost get the feeling that right from the beginning, this movie was about seven hours long, but edited down to a barely tolerable three hours, thus resulting in underdeveloped characters.

The biggest acting surprise from “Any Given Sunday” is definitely Foxx. His unfamiliar role of playing a serious guy is incredibly believable, much more than Diaz as a football fanatic team owner.

As a frustrated coach who is losing touch with the newer generation of players, Pacino’s performance was nothing short of his usual.

The most disturbing performance came from Taylor. It’s cool that he was actually a pro football player, but for as many significant lines he has, he was hard to understand, making his lines very distracting to his scenes.

Former football player Jim Brown, playing defensive coordinator for the Sharks, however, was impressive. The role probably wasn’t too tough for him, but he raised some eyebrows.

Stone’s attempt at bringing out some realities of professional football was obviously evident. Non-football fans would definitely learn something about the business. But things such as showing or mentioning drugs briefly but not elaborating, leaves you wondering what the point was.

The realistic element was there, but too many distractions from other components take away from the audience soaking in the purpose of the film.

Note to filmmakers: Be careful when you have such a big cast — character development is very important for achieving the whole effect of a movie.

On any given Sunday, you might want to wait for this one to hit the rental stores.

2 1/2 Stars

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Kyle Moss

is a sophomore in journalism and mass communication from Urbandale.