Warner Archive Collection Blu-ray Review: Tin Cup (1996)

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The way that driving range pro Roy McAvoy (Kevin Costner) sees it, all you need to win a game of golf is a trusty 7 iron — although a rake, a shovel, or a baseball bat will work in a pinch — and a dogged Don Quixote-like belief that when life hands you a defining moment, you define the moment or it defines you. And to Roy, there's no moment more loaded with existential questioning than when you're 230 yards away from the tee and the only thing standing in your way is a small body of water. Do you lay up or do you "grip it and rip it?"

Relying on instinct and adrenaline, most of the time he doesn't hesitate to grab his trusty 7 iron and "let the big dog eat," but after he meets and falls for beautiful "doctor lady" Molly Griswold (played by Rene Russo), he vows to prove to her that he isn't just a small time golf jock. Second-guessing his need to always put pride ahead of logic, especially when he discovers that her boyfriend is none other than his old college tour partner, the phony, smooth-as-silk professional golfer David Simms (Don Johnson), he sets off on a quest to win the U.S. Open, kick her boyfriend's ass, and of course, get the girl.

Reuniting with his magnetic Bull Durham star Kevin Costner at the height of the actor's fame as an internationally successful movie star in the 1990s following the The Bodyguard and Dances With Wolves, writer-director Ron Shelton's Tin Cup is much more than just the golf version of the now-contemporary classic comedy that launched his career.

Lighter and even more laid-back, while Bull Durham is perhaps the most intricate and sophisticated sports themed romcom in Shelton's filmography, this one gives us a chance to see Costner's goofy side as a man perhaps halfway between his in-control character in Durham and the one played by Tim Robbins, who was the exact opposite.

As articulate and highly verbal as ever, however, which gives Costner the chance to deliver some epic speeches penned by Shelton and his co-writer John Norville, what Roy McAvoy lacks in formal education, he makes up for with his honesty and earnestness in telling whomever is listening exactly what's on his mind at all times. Obviously unfamiliar with the concept of having a filter, whether he's telling Molly — who he first meets when she takes lessons at his driving range — to just give in and listen to that tuning fork that goes off in her loins or telling off David Simms when he caddies for him in a position that's short lived, Roy has no interest in playing anything safe.

Using sports as a metaphor for life, especially when it comes to dealing with the opposite sex or deciding what a certain golf shot says about him deep down, he and Molly make a tentative agreement to trade services, with him offering golf lessons in exchange for her help as a head doctor. Joining his best friend, trusty caddy, and swing doctor Romeo (a wonderful Cheech Marin) on the road as he wins one tournament after another to qualify for the Open, the two try to help Roy confront whatever it is about him that just refuses to play conservatively when there's an opportunity to assert his greatness.

Another fascinating look at gender and (especially) the competitiveness of straight men, both in terms of their athletic skill as well as when it comes to pursuing and possessing a member of the opposite sex, if you watch this film after Shelton's Bull Durham and White Men Can't Jump, these themes hit you as hard as a 7 iron to the head. Begging to be explored in greater detail, especially as part of an overall inventory that spans the rest of the sports-centric titles of Shelton's entire filmography, much like Sofia Coppola is drawn to the period in a girl's life when she comes into her own as a self-possessed woman, Shelton's dedication to the pride and pitfalls of athletic heterosexual American males is truly captivating.

And nobody brings these affably conflicted men to life quite like Kevin Costner, who trained with former professional golfer Gary McCord to play the game well enough that a majority of the swings and shots he makes onscreen are ones legitimately hit by Costner. The inspiration for the film's gut-wrenching — so painful it's funny — climactic golf sequence where Roy must decide once and for all just which shot to take and how that translates to the man he wants to be, Costner learned so much from McCord for his Golden Globe and New York Film Critics Circle nominated performance that he wrote the forward to McCord's book Golf For Dummies.

A true movie star turn in that it's filled with pathos and more going on just below the surface, even when the film's scenes threaten to be a little sitcomish, Costner leads by example and Tin Cup's terrific ensemble cast — well-balanced by Don Johnson as the anti-Roy — helps center Shelton's chaotic world overall.

Additionally known for writing some extraordinarily complex roles for his leading ladies, which — punctuated by the Preston Sturges like screwball rhythm of his dialogue — are often daffy but wise, Rene Russo's scene-stealing portrayal of Molly marks Ron Shelton's last great female character, and a worthy successor to Susan Sarandon in Bull Durham and Rosie Perez in White Men Can't Jump.

As much fun to watch on its own as it is back-to-back-to-back with a few other Shelton works, the 1996 romcom has recently been given a sharp, sunshine bright transfer to Blu-ray from Warner Archive at long last and for longtime fans, the difference in picture and sound is immediately apparent. From the witty country twang of the great singer-songwriter tunes on the soundtrack that play like a southwestern Greek chorus for our West Texas driving range pro to the discernible thwack of a club soaring through the wind on its way to connect with a ball that shoots out of one's back speakers, the impact of the sound easily matches the clarity of the Blu-ray image.

Don Quixote on the eighteenth hole of life in deciding what he wants to do as well as how to play the game, much like Roy McAvoy, Tin Cup digs in and doesn't let go until we're completely won over by its audacity, brashness, and charm.

Text ©2020, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. https://www.filmintuition.com  Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited and in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  Also, as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases made off my site through ad links. FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I may have received a review copy or screener link of this title in order to voluntarily decide to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique. Cookies Notice: This site incorporates tools (including advertiser partners and widgets) that use cookies and may collect some personal information in order to display ads tailored to you etc. Please be advised that neither Film Intuition nor its site owner has any access to this data beyond general site statistics (geographical region etc.) as your privacy is our main concern.

Movie Review: Vault (2019)

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A solidly made mid-range entry into an overcrowded genre, Vault charts the role that two small time crooks played in pulling off one of the largest robberies in American history at the height of organized crime activity in 1975.

Running out of plot in its anti-climactic final act, while it isn't nearly as successful as Raymond De Felitta's work from start to finish, Tom DeNucci's Vault plays best like a thematically similar B-movie cousin of fellow fact-based effort Rob the Mob.

From a scene where Don Johnson asks to get "made" to another where charming stick-up artist Deuce (Theo Rossi) brings the woman he held up hours earlier home to mama on the first date, the overly familiar Vault closely adheres to other genre fare.

Temporarily managing to shake the feeling that the film, which was written by DeNucci and B. Dolan, fell off the back of a better gangster movie's truck, Vault builds up momentum as Deuce and his partner in crime Chucky (Clive Standen) get tapped by a bitter Johnson to rob the mob care of a bonded vault.

Turning his audience into willing co-conspirators, while Vault delights in getting the details of the heist right, like most criminal plans, it fails to account for variables or figure out what to do or how to keep the adrenaline going long after the job has been pulled off.

Trading Rhode Island for Nevada, Vault takes us out to the desert on the lam with an increasingly wound up and sometimes strung-out Deuce and his girlfriend Karyn (Samira Wiley). And as Deuce calls his contacts back east for updates, his sense of frustration is magnified as DeNucci's film drifts, leaving unanswered questions hanging in the air.

Weaving things together with a conclusion that's as jam-packed with information as the film's opening sequence, despite its haphazard narrative approach, Vault is awfully entertaining to watch.

With Chazz Palminteri doing an easy layup as Johnson's mafia rival, the film is undeniably heightened by Rossi's charismatic turn. As playful as he is grounded, though he easily dominates Vault, watching Rossi you wonder how many more mobs he'll have to rob before an A-list director taps him and he gets made.

Text ©2019, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited and in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I may have received a review copy or screener link of this title in order to voluntarily decide to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique. Cookies Notice: This site incorporates tools (including advertiser partners and widgets) that use cookies and may collect some personal information in order to display ads tailored to you etc. Please be advised that neither Film Intuition nor its site owner has any access to this data beyond general site statistics (geographical region etc.) as your privacy is our main concern.

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TV on DVD: Nash Bridges-- The First Season

An old psychology professor of mine used to say that typically, while women preferred to have heart-to-heart conversations face-to-face, men preferred to avoid eye contact at all costs. The best place to start a serious conversation with a man--she advised-- was in a car, and sure enough we see this time and again in buddy comedies as men end up revealing perhaps more than they would’ve if they’d been getting together for a slice of pie and cup of coffee.

CBS’s popular program Nash Bridges was no exception and the writers had great fun comprising sometimes near episode-long situations that occurred in and around the vehicle. Moreover, one writer informed viewers on the DVD for Nash Bridges—The First Season that later into the series, every single episode began in the car. Dubbed “the moving confessional” by the writers involved in the “Nash Bridges Writers Roundtable Season 1” extra on the DVD, they still marvel about the way that star Don Johnson was able to drive at speeds nearing forty miles an hour, carry on a conversation, sometimes shoot a gun, and more all behind the wheel of the series' iconic bright yellow 1971 Plymouth Barracuda convertible. And despite the fact that several websites dispute the reference that it was in fact a 1971 Barracuda with others charging it was a Hemi-Cuda, some stating it was a 1970 and in Nash's first episode “Genesis,” it’s referred to as a 1970 model in a line where only fourteen were made-- the bottom line is for its time, it was hands-down the coolest vehicular male-bonding set on network TV.

While typically in television and film, all driving scenes are faked as vehicles are towed along by expert drivers and rigged cameramen, the frequent usage of the Barracuda and the attention to detail of filming directly on the streets of San Francisco, employing hundreds of local workers in the roughly two million dollar per episode budget, set Nash Bridges apart from other police shows of the late '90s. Admittedly, the writers did note that in the first season, they were still finding their footing as the tone of the show changed from one episode to the next as some were filled with comical misadventures and others underworld dramas. And it's definitely evident in the eight-episode run to viewers watching the DVD as it’s obvious that the air-dates were mixed around as some storylines seem out of sync from how they may have originally been intended to appear. Still, despite this, it's a far better show than I would’ve assumed.

Much lighter than the dark, seedy, and painfully hip '80s Michael Mann smash hit Miami Vice that launched Don Johnson-- series creator Carlton Cuse shared on the DVD that he wanted to present a more accurate portrait of the Johnson that he knew, which he called the fun version of the man with “real charisma” and a “great sense of humor.” So in the end, it’s this approach along with the series' emphasis on Johnson’s character Nash Bridges’ own domestic struggles that helped enable all involved to realize that that’s truly the type of show they wanted to make. Likewise, as Johnson noted in a DVD interview, the show’s conception was born out of issues that baby boomers were facing and with which they could therefore relate.

A far cry from the much darker mafia and drug trade setting of the original script Johnson and good friend Hunter S. Thompson had originally pitched, Nash Bridges finds him instead playing the titular lead-- a top-notch inspector for the San Francisco Police Department who manages to use his photographic (or “pornographic” as he frequently jokes) memory and experience with magic in his work. While the writers were always told that Nash Bridges was not an ensemble show and that instead it was a Don Johnson series all the way (and the actor who also produced had tremendous input on all aspects), each screenwriter took turns doing a “Nash pass” to ensure that they wrote the best possible script for their star, and their talent and training paid off as some have gone onto work on NCIS and another writer eventually created FX’s highly acclaimed The Shield.

Yet, even though it was a Don Johnson vehicle, every supporting character gets a chance at the wheel and it wouldn’t have worked nearly as well without his amazing costar and buddy-in-banter, Cheech Marin. Although they’d known each other for two decades, as Johnson revealed on the DVD, it wasn’t until Ron Shelton’s Tin Cup that they’d actually worked together and as Marin joked, one day they filmed their first scene for Cup together and the next, Johnson asked him if he’d like to star alongside him in Bridges.

While there was some legal wrangling to be sorted out as Marin was contracted on another show, eventually he joined the series for good as his former retired partner and long-time best friend, Joe Dominguez, who has since become a P.I. and later an accidental gay bar owner in a surprisingly funny business scheme near the end of season one. Married to the "Nordic Goddess" Inger, Joe seems to take everything in stride balancing work and family but Bridges is unable to turn off the cop part of his brain. Still dealing with mixed feelings, nostalgic spontaneous couplings and associations with two very different ex-wives and trying to raise an independent minded teenage daughter who’s growing up way too fast, Bridges is-- as the writers note-- a man who’s done everything right in his professional life and completely flunked his personal one.

Whether he’s trying to juggle taking care of his elderly dementia-ridden father, deal with taking his first vacation in over four thousand days with his ex-wife (as an ironic newly-divorced honeymoon for the two who sizzle better without rings), or hitting up his many underworld contacts for leads, Bridges was multi-tasking before the term was added to the dictionary. Although sometimes it’s way too hard to believe that his character would still be able to go undercover since that distinctive car as well as his sterling reputation and ability to make headlines make him nearly as popular as (well) Don Johnson himself and his tendency to call everyone “Bubba” does feel more Smokey and the Bandit country slang than hip SFPD, but the first season of Bridges showed the series’ awesome promise to come.

Action packed with some jaw-dropping chase sequences including one in the first episode involving guest star Lucy Liu and filled with enough shoot-outs and stand-offs to make John Woo green with envy, I was surprised to discover that something I feared would be at best a “B movie” version of a cop show was endlessly entertaining. Featuring audio commentaries, special interviews, the season one promo and more and arriving in a two-Disc DVD set on October 14 from Paramount Home Entertainment, don’t be alarmed if you find yourselves speeding through the eight episodes fairly quickly. Just don’t go too fast, for-- if you find yourself pulled over by Marin’s Dominguez in one of the season’s funniest scenes-- you may have to fill out your own speeding ticket yourself.