The Tiger Woods Story

I usually don't review tv movies because they usually aren't worthwhile. This film is no exception, but I had to throw in my two cents because of maybe the worst actor I've ever seen. Unfortunately, for Showtime (the makers of the film), it wasn't a supporting actor, but their lead. Khalil Kain, the guy who plays Tiger, is abysmal. Stiff line readings, emotionless, totally unlikable. Hardly bore resemblance as well. These aspects just cause the viewer to be distracted by making comments to others in the room (or to themselves) about how lousy the casting director is. As far as the film, it's by the numbers familiararity, and ends just when Woods was getting rolling in life! One of those flicks you recommend to people because it's so entertaining on a bad level.

As a Tiger Woods fan (with a morbid fondness for campy made-for-TV biopics) I made it a point to catch this one on Fox Family channel. While watching (during the many boring, repetitious or mawkish bits) I was reading a profile of the real Tiger in the current New Yorker magazine. But that only accentuated the film's faults. The first half or more was actually not as bad as it could have been. The acting, particularly by Keith David and Freda Foh Shen as Earl and Tida, was quite competent, and care seemed to have been taken to portray accurately the discovery and development of the child Tiger's remarkable talents. The boy playing Tiger up to age 13, Gary Le Roi Gray, bore a remarkable resemblance to Tiger and got all the moves right.

The film fell apart, however, as soon as Khalil Kain came on the scene as the older Tiger, starting with his time at Stanford. The actor now bore absolutely no resemblance to Tiger Woods as we know him: his looks, his build, his demeanor, his attitude, his speech -- all were totally lacking in even the remotest resemblance to one of the best known people in America today. What could the casting people have been thinking? You could stand on a street corner in any American city and within a few minutes find someone who looks and acts more like Tiger Woods than this guy. (The scenes at Stanford were also almost unwatchable, looking like outtakes from the tackiest TV high school drama.) This lack of verisimilitude was all the more jarring given what had gone on in the dutiful and well-intentioned first half of the film. Quite frankly, at this point, I switched off. I wasn't up for the doubtless sappy, soppy ending anyway, and I really could not bear to look at the impostor playing Tiger -- a callow, wimpy, whiny, pale unsmiling youth, posing as a tall, handsome, strongly built and profoundly athletic man with a world-famous toothy smile (and, yeah, okay, a bit of a puffed-up personality) whom everyone in the world recognizes. In the end (or at least at the point where I bailed out) this film was an embarrassment.

I heard that Tiger Woods got his name after his father`s life was saved by a comrade in `Nam . This led to visions of the heroic cliche of someone running onto the battlefield slinging a wounded buddy over their shoulder and dashing hundreds of metres dodging machine gun fire and exploding shells. According to this biopic Col Earl Woods were sitting in a living room disguised as the jungles of South East Asia where a snake popped into view . It wasn`t just any type of snake , no siree , it was one of those ones you use as a draught excluder . Thankfully someone saves Earl`s life by shooting the head off the draft excluder thereby meaning we have a story to tell . In the next scene we`re shown a general taking Earl into his office gives him a cigar and we`re treated to some top class dialogue

" Hey Colonel you`ve done a couple of tours in country . It`s about time we got you behind a desk "

" No thanks sir , I`m an infantryman at heart "

Not even John Wayne could have come out with such modesty and considering Earl spent the opening sequence dressed in a green beret uniform you have to consider why he considers himself a mere infantryman ? In fact you have to consider if the screenwriters knowledge of Vietnam extends beyond watching THE GREEN BERETS over and over again

As you may have noticed no one who has commentated on this movie actually thinks much of it as a bio-pic and some people don`t think much of it as entertainment either but I disagree with the second point , it is entertaining but not the way the producers envisaged . I mean we`re not shown any scenes of Tiger throwing tantrums where specatators cough at the wrong moment or a photo journalist gets into Tigers line of view . We`re not shown any of Tiger`s obvious prima donna attitude or the fact when he looses another tournament it`s always someone elses fault . Watching this bio-pic on the Tiger is like watching the " Springtime For Hitler " sequences from THE PRODUCERS thinking it`s a documentary on the second world war

I don't know what other reviewers are talking about? This movie is good. It's on the level of a Lifetime-type movie of its day in time. Are people comparing this to a blockbuster type movie?... because it was not that bad.

At any rate, the acting was good and moved along pretty quickly. Everyone held their own, from the kid who played Tiger to him as a 21 year old.

Now, if Nextflix, Hulu, HBOMax or AppleTv (or something like that) made this movie, in this current and age-I'm sure it would be better and probably done in an episodic format up to current day Tiger.

Obviously, watch it yourself and judge for yourself. Definitely good watch for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

I thought this film was worse than Plan 9 from Outer Space. Similarly to Edward Wood, the director will be very famous in the future, I am very confident of that.

I could learn to love this film if I thought it were a parody - but it isn't. Tragically.

Sets are woefully inadequate, acting with more wood than Tiger himself, comic bit-parts, abysmal script.... there is nothing redeeming except the undoubtedly gripping story, and the good resemblance of Tiger's screen mother to his real mum. Colin Montgomerie on the other hand...

Ooh, but the score covering the closing credits is highly entertaining!