Kevin1963

In the middle 1970's, the Dade County (Miami, FL) school system, in an attempt to get kids to read, gave 7th grade students (which I was one), the script to the Vanishing Shadow. One of the TV stations broadcast all 12 episodes, which we were required to watch and read along with the script.

The show was a real blast for a 12 year old kid. I still remember the vanishing belt and the cornball dialog (which we had to act out in class the following day). I remember Ada Ince, who played Stanley's love interest, was a real babe and I remember the Stanley was my hero.

I would recommend this serial to anybody who enjoys the low-tech attempts to create high-tech effects in the 1930's. A must!

I had to laugh when I read the review by another commenter for Assassination that mentions the palm trees in Washington D.C. When I think of this movie (which isn't often), I always think about the "Kokomo Mountains" that are shown in the background when Charles Bronson and Jill Ireland are supposedly in Kokomo, Indiana on their nationwide jaunt. I lived near Kokomo when this movie came out and I never recall seeing any mountains, nor did I remember Kokomo being a one stoplight town as it is portrayed here.

It is glaring errors such as this that make Assassination one of the poorest movies I have ever seen. My guess is that Jill Ireland, who was waging a courageous, but losing battle against cancer at the time, wanted to make one more picture with her husband Bronson and took whatever came her way. It is listed as her last film on IMDb and it is a sad conclusion to her career.

One star out of ten (and I'm being generous)

Like many of the other commenters have already mentioned, the Oliver Stone syle of movie-making continues with "Any Given Sunday". Each scene is interspersed with quick film edits that can give one a headache. But I wouldn't have minded that if there was a story to tell. Basically, it is 120 minutes of football action mixed with about 30 minutes of non-football action. There really isn't any story told here and what is told is not unique. You've seen the controlling female owner before in the old HBO series "First and Ten". You've seen drug use in "North Dallas Forty". You've seen dirty and rough play and mangy characters in "The Longest Yard". And each one of those shows was more entertaining than "Any Given Sunday".

Al Pacino is sorely miscast as the maligned head coach, probably his worst role in his first-class acting career. My guess is that he wanted to work with Oliver Stone again (they did Scarface together) and took the first thing that came along. I also thought Cameron Diaz, who has actually become a fine actress, just goes through the motions in this one. But I will say that I was very impressed with the NFL Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor's performance in this film as the great linebacker in his last days on the gridiron. He isn't on screen that much, but he is convincing.

There's great camerawork in the football action scenes as Stone put cameras on players to get as close to the action as possible. But if he could have put an interesting story to it, I'd give it more consideration as a great film. But it is only about a 2.5 out of 5 for me.