Dead Solid Perfect

...not nearly as funny as the book. Why? Mainly because they had to clean the language and nearly everything else up from the book or the film would have been rated X. Dan Jenkins writes hilarious books but they tend to have a lot of cussin' in them. His use of the English language has a decided Texas tint to it and it is flat-dab funny! I love Jenkin's writing style. He's written several funny books, probably the most popular of which is Semi-Tough, which was also made into a film. However, it, too, fell short of the book. But that's a different review. This film is still pretty dang funny, so by all means watch it. But be sure to pick up the book!

however, when it was finally released, and I watched it, I really didn't find it all that impressive.  About the only thing really worthwhile about this movie is that there's one point where I can point to a vague bluish blur, and tell anyone else present "that's me".

  There was one thing that struck me about this movie.  I am aware of a culture within the entertainment industry that seems to think that in order to be any good, a movie has to contain a fair amount of obscene language, nudity, gratuitous sex, and other similar garbage.  In watching this movie, it seems to me that its makers felt compelled to include a certain amount of this, but that they felt that doing so would interfere with the story they were trying to tell.  So what they did was to cram as much of it as they could into about the first 15 or 20 minutes of the movie; and then — having got that out of the way — they then went on to tell the story with very little further inclusion of such material.  You could completely cut out the first 15 or 20 minutes of the movie, and not miss it; and what remains could be shown on network TV during prime time very little further editing for content.

You take a big swing with a wood or metal or plastic mallet, a dimpled white ball goes speeding off. There is no one to catch it or try to take it away from you, or prevent you from retrieving it. You walk or ride at a leisurely pace to whack at it again. When you get close to the hole you give it a tiny whack until it falls in. You might get caught in a "trap" or a "hazard" or in the "rough" which to anything but a helpless paraplegic is none of these things.

So what makes it exciting? Money and girls! The latter are very good in this film--the rest, like watching paint dry.

"Dead Solid Perfect" is another stereotyped sports movie, only this time it's not the underdog baseball team we're rooting for, it's Randy Quaid playing a second tier pro golfer. In the movie's favor is the fact that Quaid is somewhat sympathetic, as opposed to the obnoxious characters he usually plays. The film is part golf movie and part relationship primer, pretty accurately depicting the conflicts between men and women who are involved with the tour. Of special note is Jack Warden's performance as Randy Quaid's sponsor. Warden easily steals every scene he is in. If the predictability of "Dead Solid Perfect" can be overlooked, you will find it entertaining. - MERK

Although not his biggest commercial success, ‘Dead Solid Perfect' may be the funniest book written by one of this country's great talents, Dan Jenkins.

In the text, there is a combination of comedic genius, and a true love for the subject matter, the game of golf. Add 50 some years of experience reporting on the game, and Mr. Jenkins has just about every aspect of this story nailed, cold.

I know many who think one of his earlier books, Semi-Tough to be an exemplary piece of writing, I agree, but the film it produced turned out luke-warm as best.

This film is better, although it can not be described with the superlatives of Jenkins original. Sometimes it's just impossible to capture the essence of such multi-layered characters on film in 2 hours or less.

Not to knock Bobby Roth, or the two principals, Randy Quaid, and Jack Warden who both did good turns: Quaid as Kenny Lee, the talented but struggling tour golfer and Warden as `Bad-Hair' Wimberly, the cash-rich sponsor. The film stumbles and rumbles to a storybook conclusion.

For golf fans it's a good movie and certainly more honest and original than Tin Cup. For the rest I'd say only fair.