Stealth Entertainment
By Scott Lumley
August 21, 2008
BoxOfficeProphets.com
But Hollywood's loss is our gain. There is a veritable treasure trove of film out there that you may not have seen. I will be your guide to this veritable wilderness of unwatched film. It will be my job to steer you towards the action, adventure, drama and comedy that may have eluded you, and at the same time, steer you away from some truly unwatchable dreck.
Hopefully we'll stumble across some entertainment that may have slid under your radar. Wish us luck.
Tin Cup (1997)
Do you remember when Kevin Costner was a player? It was just a decade ago that he couldn't turn around without falling into a classic movie. Bull Durham is still one of my favorite movies of all time and is aging as well as anything I have in my collection. Nowadays, after the last few fiascos that Costner has been involved with, I wouldn't be surprised if his email goes right into the spam folder at the major studios. Swing Vote came and went so fast it may as well have gone directly to video. He's rapidly moving into the same bracket as Steven Segal, but with fewer broken elbows.
It's a little bizarre when you look back over Costner's career and see this downward trajectory. It wasn't that long ago that Costner could do no wrong, and Tin Cup is a sterling example of just how golden his touch was a decade ago.
Tin Cup stars Kevin Costner (obviously) as Roy "Tin Cup" McAvoy, Cheech Marin as his best friend/caddy Romeo Posar, Rene Russo as Dr. Molly Griswold and Don Johnson as pro golfer and chief nemesis David Simms. This was excellent casting by the way. None of these actors seem forced at all and this film may be Marin's finest work ever.
Tin Cup revolves around the life of Roy McAvoy over the course of about one year. He's a middle-aged adolescent who refuses to grow up, lives in a trailer and works on/owns a driving range. He owes a large amount of cash to his ex-girlfriend, who works as a stripper, and he shows all the maturity of a green banana, which is to say, none.
Roy's perfectly happy living like he is. His current address is a run-down mobile home, he doesn't so much as work as screw around on his driving range and he passes his days making absurd golf shots for prop bets.
It all falls apart when Molly shows up on his range looking for driving lessons. Roy tries his usual patter on her and she deftly rips apart his slacker façade and player lines with practiced wit. Naturally, Roy is smitten, and he wants to be with this woman who sees right through him. Unfortunately, his life is literally a disaster, and the movie basically centers on Roy trying to bring some sense of order to his life.
The problem here is that Roy really only has one skill, which is golf, and he has all the self control of Andy Dick around a teenage girl. His attempts are disastrous at best. To top it all off, Roy has a pack of slacker friends who continually applaud his every attempt at self destruction.
This is actually a fairly long movie with next to no violence at all. There are a couple of cross words here and there, but this movie gets by on well-scripted dialogue and some witty repartee. The highlight sport of the whole film is obviously golf, so this really is the exact opposite of an event film. And yet, as you watch it, it doesn't feel long at all.
The writers of this script did a particularly fine job with Roy and Romeo, two golf buddies who have been around each other so long they are practically married. Romeo knows all about Roy and has witnessed him self destruct in every painful way you can imagine. He shows that deftly, too. It's one thing to make bong jokes, but it's another to be furious with your best friend as they walk off the same cliff they have already fallen off 14 times. Romeo deftly shows that suppressed agony quite well, and Marin just impresses me to no end in this movie.
I also have to take note of Don Johnson's role in this movie as seasoned professional golfer David Simms. Johnson owns his role so completely that I don't see how they could have put anyone else into his slot. He's smooth as silk, polished as a diamond and a complete prick at the same time. In one scene he takes a prop bet with Roy and completely takes him to school. He doesn't stop to belittle Roy, he just smirks and wanders off with his prize. His sly smile is really all the browbeating he needs to do in that shot, and even knowing he's the "bad guy" in the film, you can't help but applaud him just a bit for that scene.
If there's anyone in this movie who was replaceable, it was Rene Russo. She wasn't bad at all, but the character called for a smart, sexy woman and that was the standard role for Russo ten years ago. She doesn't really add anything to the film, though, and her reactions at the end of the movie almost seemed to detract from it. It's disappointing, because the movie does suffer a bit for her somewhat all over the place performance.
Still, Tin Cup is a solid film. The characters are well formed and written and the dialogue flows seamlessly. Roy isn't rewarded with a fairy tale ending but he is rewarded for his attempts to improve himself. More than anything, that felt right. This whole movie feels right, actually. It's a fine, entertaining film and it's aging like a bottle of good wine. Go ahead and enjoy it.