Tin Cup

If you're in the mood for a light comedy with romantic overtones with some delightful performances by some very good actors (including the great Cheech Marin - who is absolutely winning here), then don't hesitate to watch this on a rainy night with your lover or spouse.

This is a feel-good movie and has enough of a story line - one that rings true for many PGA golfer wannabes by the way - to provide a joy ride that's fun and worthwhile.

One of the most memorable scenes, in fact, was torn from the pages of the life of former pro golfer Gary McCord (who's now a fine golf tournament announcer - and who makes a cameo in this movie by the way). You'll know it when you get there. It's the scene where you'll say, "I can't believe he's doing that!" But believe it. It actually happened. And Gary did it (look it up)!

Because of the romance, this is almost a chick flick - were it not for the golf underpinnings. So it'll please both sexes (and possibly lead to romance afterward, for putting you in the mood - if that's what you desire, as some do from romantic comedies after all).

Plus, to me, it's Cheech's best and most endearing real-acting movie role after his halcyon days with Tommy Chong. I say "real-acting" movie role because he's not going for the laughs here. He's funny - but he's also a real person (the kind you'd want as your best friend), and he plays it beautifully.

From an acting standpoint, "Tin Cup" may be Kevin Costner's best movie. Here he plays Roy McAvoy, a burned-out, washed-out, down-n-out golf pro a way out in West Texas. He's broke, drunk most of the time, and convinced of his own worthlessness -- hence his attraction to poetry and a puffed-up opinion of his own heroics on the golf course (he's got to have something hold on to). Roy is just this side of being a complete bum -- this is one of the few movies I've seen on any subject that actually addresses the financial condition of its loose-living hero.

"Tin Cup" is all about the dire straits of this character, and Costner is more than up to the challenge of playing this guy convincingly. Costner for once packs everything into his performance: charm, wit, sarcasm, hopelessness, bitterness, and more than a little arrogance. He is funny, laidback and shows remarkable athletic skill. He tops his career-best work in "Bull Durham" here (not surprising, since this is another Ron Shelton film).

The movie also works great as a classic heroic Quest story. McAvoy is on a mythic quest, not for the perfect 18 holes, certainly not for money, but for love. "Tin Cup" could easily have been titled "Quixote Jousts at Windmills in West Texas." Best of all, McAvoy KNOWS he's on a quest; when he refers to it in his dialogue, it sounds pathtically funny, but when you hold this story up to the ancient pattern of the heroic quest as described by Joseph Campbell, it really rings true.

Probably the most interesting aspect of "Tin Cup" is that it also works as a metaphor for what Costner has done with his career. Here's a guy who could have played it safe and easy after all those Oscars, but took off on crazy flights of fancy like "Waterworld" and lost badly. (He continued to play unsafe shots after 1996, with almost every movie that followed this one.) McAvoy plays the game his way, on a dare, on a bet, with outrageous egotism and a willingness to lose it all -- publicly. That's what Costner has done at his own game. Was "Open Range" the dreaded safe shot that corrected his course?

If somebody watches Tin Cup and does not find this movie a "must-see", it might be either because you don't know golf, or because you take life too easy. This film is nothing but irresistible. It combines those tiny-little-moments that we golfers must face every time we are in the golf course (yes, we may not be facing the US Open title, but golf gives us a chance to know ourselves every time we hit the ball: Do I play safe or do I take chances? Am I a winner, or am I a loser? Do I have nerves, or do I simply breakdown?). Tin Cup goes insight all of that, and it shows it to us, in such a simple form through the eyes and life of Roy McAvoy and his buddies, that at the end you find yourself with nothing but the urge to rent it again. Forget for a while about the romance and the girl, if so you want, but don't deny that the songs, the views, and the dialogue are superb. See it as a great sport movie, with a clear lesson to all of us: In life as in Golf, it is you who make that final call. A good call means success; a bad one, well I guess you know where the rest goes.

"Tin Cup" is a unique experience, in that after viewing this movie, you won't automatically compare it to any other film ... there isn't another one like it.

It wrote in another review that all sports films contains many clichés. Well, I have to contradict myself in describing this film about golf. It starts many clichés, and then breaks them in half, sometimes literally! LOL Funny, charming, romantic, and defiant, Tin Cup gives you a bit of everything ... even a realistic ending but with a crumb thrown to the future at the same time.

And the phrase "Tin Cup" made its way into sports talk for an event where a golfer REALLY screws up on a hole, especially if from stubbornness.

While it may never be as famous as its forerunner Bull Durham (which also starred Costner and was also written and directed by Shelton) Tin Cup has legs of its own to stand on. With a brilliant soundtrack, excellent support from Russo, Johnson, Marin and others (including two Costners) and the writing and direction of Ron Shelton, this is a winner - an incredibly funny and gripping comedy with a smashing bit of irresistible bravado thrown in for good measure. Where Bull Durham didn't have a climax per se, Tin Cup does - and what a climax that is. And although you may in retrospect see the outcome as predictable, odds are you won't guess this by a mile working into it the first time: the suspense really works too.

For what it's worth, the riddle the movie starts on has been traced as far back as The Cosby Show.

A definite keeper.