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.

Netflix Movie Review: Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)

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A satirical horror movie set in the modern art world, whether you're looking for a late night thrill or don't mind working a little harder to engage with a film on a deeper level, Velvet Buzzsaw will surely do.

Filled with witty wordplay and morbid metaphors brought vividly to life, in the weird and wonderful multi-layered third work from writer-director Dan Gilroy, even the character names are entertaining.

From Jake Gyllenhaal's taste-making art critic Morf Vandewalt, whose body language, voice, and taste morphs from one scene to the next to Rene Russo's gallery owner Rhodora Haze, whose Lolita-esque last name alludes as much to her younger days as a sexy, hard-living punk rocker (in the titular band) as it does her hazy business ethics, there's a lot here to savor.

Rather than opt for a traditional first person narrative, Gilroy's film takes a cue from Altman's oeuvre with its approach to storytelling. Set at the intersection of art and commerce where creativity is overshadowed by talk of demand, money, and the market, Buzzsaw revolves around a handful of characters who play very different roles in the industry from assistants and installers to artists and museum curators.

Led by Gyllenhaal and Russo (who co-starred in Gilroy's feature filmmaking debut Nightcrawler), Buzzsaw co-stars Toni Colette, John Malkovich, Zawe Ashton, Daveed Diggs, Natalia Dyer, Tom Sturridge, and Billy Magnussen who all seem to delight in Gilroy's mischievous script, which satirizes the commoditization of art in a way that could just as easily apply to film, publishing, or music.

Though undoubtedly anchored by Gyllenhaal's Vanderwalt, who looks like he had the time of his life on this film, Buzzsaw's real breakout turn is Zawe Ashton as Russo's ambitious assistant Josephina, who stumbles onto an apartment filled with art after her elderly neighbor dies with no heirs.

Initially entering the apartment to find and feed his cat, even though the man had left explicit instructions to destroy his art upon his death, Josephina can't resist bringing some to Morf to evaluate.

Fascinated by her discovery, with Morf's ecstatic approval, she teams up with the scheming Rhodora Haze to curate a show, destined to make her a superstar.

Soon after, the deceased Vitril Dease becomes the hottest name in art but as Morf digs into his past for a book and uncovers one disturbing story after another, he realizes a bit too late that the darkness pouring off the canvas and into the lives of those around him, which has resulted in multiple deaths, might be connected to Dease.

Lensed by Robert Elswit, the There Will Be Blood cinematographer makes the most of Gilroy's inventive frames right from the start as we explore a bizarre modern art convention in Miami where certain phrases (either in lights or spoken by an art installation robot) add another layer of foreshadowing and character revelation to the film. Needless to say (and fortunately for Netflix), Velvet Buzzsaw is designed to play even better on repeat viewings when we can take in every element.

Sure to be Netflix's next big post-Bird Box hit, with darkly comedic witticisms, up-to-the-minute satire, and shocking comeuppances performed by its stellar cast, Gilroy replaces the pre-credit shock sequence and familiar jump scares of retro horror fare with something irresistibly, thrillingly new.

Dare I say, I think Morf Vanderwalt would approve.

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.

Blu-ray Review: Major League (1989) -- Wild Thing Edition

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Like a werewolf who only changes on the nights of a full moon, in the American remake of the formerly soccer-centric Colin Firth vehicle Fever Pitch (based on the book by Nick Hornby), Jimmy Fallon's character is a dependable math teacher for most of the calendar year, but goes into crazed fan mode every spring when his beloved Red Sox head down for spring training.

Setting the U.S. film during the year that the Red Sox finally stopped breaking Boston hearts and the curse of the Bambino by winning the World Series added a slice of authenticity to the fresh romantic comedy. However, while it was a trial to be a fan of the Sox, writer/director David S. Ward had it far worse in the 1980s as a dedicated devotee of his own struggling Cleveland Indians.



So instead of using Yankees toilet paper or going overboard a la Fallon's character, Ward decided that the only place he could make his dream of seeing his cherished team make its way to the championships was by sublimating that pain into comedic art in one of the most successful sports sub-genres of the 1980s with the All-American baseball movie.



However, while Ward's inspiration for the surprise '89 hit Major League came from a sincere place in his heart, he wasn't about to abandon all logic and reality so he dreamed up a dynamite hook wherein his baseball movie takes a stronger cue from Mel Brooks' The Producers rather than Ron Shelton's Bull Durham in delivering us an entire ragtag group of Bad News Bears style hooligans that would never have been let onto the fictitious Field of Dreams.

A cult favorite that's picked up considerable momentum since it's release, although the film earned roughly four times its budget at the box office and spawned two sequels, amazingly it's a title that I couldn't quite recall. While parts of the work seemed familiar such as the unmistakable Charlie Sheen zig-zag hair cut, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to check it out in Blu-ray form twenty years after its release from Paramount Home Entertainment. Likewise, I agreed that-- similar to the sentiments expressed by the cast included in the interviews on the Wild Thing Edition-- it has held up considerably well these past twenty years so much so in fact that some of the aspects of the film have seeped into America's pastime such as the introduction of pitchers or star players who take the field with their own theme music usually in the form of a rock anthem or instantly recognizable track.



And in Major League, the man who does this to great effect near the conclusion of the picture is Charlie Sheen's naturally gifted yet loose cannon pitcher Rick Vaughn. Regularly hurling balls at speeds well over ninety miles an hour-- the formerly incarcerated “wild thing” of a pitcher who finally finds control in his aim by way of the right pair of eyeglasses, has since become a character you remember more as the “Wild Thing” referenced in his introduction walk-to-the-mound music than for his actual name. And of course, being that the film was made just after Sheen's success in Platoon and Wall Street as he began a rise to super-stardom-- knowing what we now know about the wild side of Sheen-- it's only fitting that he played the man so many years ago.

Intriguingly in the film, he's cast opposite his Platoon co-star Tom Berenger in a refreshing change of pace that gave the men who genuinely enjoyed one another's company to play friends instead of rivals at war. Rounding out the roster, Ward proved a knack for identifying talent early in casting some actors in either their earliest roles or completely against type as he gave the beautiful, successful model Rene Russo her first acting job as Berenger's ex he's still hung up on, L.A. Law's Corbin Bernsen getting a chance to play funny as a baseball diva much more interested in the business than the game, superstitious voodoo practicing player Cerrano (24's Dennis Haysbert), and a hilarious turn by the over-eager Willie Mays Hayes (Wesley Snipes) who shows up for spring training even though he wasn't invited.

The masterful casting of a diverse group adds considerable charm to the hilarious premise which finds the widowed showgirl wife of the former owner of the Cleveland Indians (Margaret Whitton) who-- sick of the cold weather of Cleveland-- decides to exploit a clause in the contract that would allow her to move the entire team if the attendance plummets and they finish dead last. Setting her sights on relocating to sunny Miami, Whitton's manipulative Rachel Phelps puts her plan for guaranteed failure into action by recruiting a tire salesman to manage the team (James Gammon) and creating a list of players she assumes will be the worst lineup imaginable such as the imprisoned Vaughn, former talented catcher Berenger who's way past his prime, and more assorted oddballs that come out of the woodwork in this offbeat work.



Although Ward's knowledge and passion for the game is commendable and indeed, if you explore the copious bonus features on the Blu-ray, you'll appreciate the way he modeled some characters on either real players or composites of several and put all the actors into an intensive baseball camp-- part of the reason it managed to hit way out of the park of merely another underdog sports movie is because it's never merely a baseball film. Instead, in essence, it's one of those great band of outsiders comedies about the strangest of human beings coming together. And in this regard and by trying to always emphasize character driven humor and an ensemble seemingly improvised spirit at times-- Ward managed to ensure he'd provide something for everybody in a movie.



While certainly, Major League can be slapped with the same charge as most sports films that it's predictable since you know precisely that the Cleveland Indians will soon begin to win more than they lose ratcheting up the conflict and increasing what's at stake for everyone but the way he gets from Point A to Point B is what makes the movie incredibly fun and still surprisingly effective to this day.



Although there's a strong homage to “types” of players and actual personalities throughout the film that would make the film play far better to those in the know including athletes currently working in the majors and minors of Cleveland baseball (as we witness in another extra), Ward's creativity helps make some of the very real issues surrounding ball players like rivalry, superstition, and girls on the road feel a bit more fresh.



And admittedly initially, I was consumed with a comparison to The Producers despite the fact that structurally and thematically they're very different, I was intrigued to learn upon further research that-- way before the fixing of the 1919 World series-- there was one recorded attempt in 1899 by Frank Robinson, the owner of the (then) Cleveland Spiders to compile the worst roster he could create in revenge against the fans of the city for failing to turn up for games.

While the fans of Cleveland were finally given hope first fictitiously by Ward and then in reality during some success in the '90s, the Blu-ray edition of the disc makes for an impressive transfer of the film to high definition wherein the sound takes center stage (it is the Wild Thing Edition after all) in place of some of the softness of the colors but it's cleaned up nicely with added clarity, a warm and inviting depth perception that considerably augments the scenes on the field.

Despite this, fans who already own this particular edition or another of the film on DVD may want to evaluate whether or not the upgrade is worth the price tag depending on how many features they desire-- the extras are well worth investigating, so for those who are new to Major League, you may want to go ahead and just jump right into this format to witness it in the best possible presentation (which flatters any set-up with English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD or the original mono soundtrack) and start catching the spring fever since it's baseball season after all.