I rented Rango for my youngest over the weekend and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It’s one of those great animated movies that provides cartoon entertainment for the kids and lots of winks at the adults. For example, there’s a brief appearance of Hunter S. Thompson, made all the more funny by the fact that Rango’s voice is that of Johnny Depp, who played the gonzo journalist in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (and actually, the lizard Rango wears Thompson’s flowered shirt throughout much of the beginning). Then there’s the appearance of The Man With No Name. A Lee Van Cleef character is in there, too. There are a couple of nods to Chinatown. And Apocalypse Now, Holes, High Noon, Cat Ballou, and Deliverance (which is extra funny because Ned Beatty does one of the voices). Rango himself is none other than Don Knotts from The Shakiest Gun in the West.

And there’s golf. That’s right, as you can see from the image above, golf plays a part in the plot (You can see the “John Huston” tycoon from Chinatown as the turtle on the left).

A GREAT movie and worth at least a rental. Thing Two liked it so much I likely will end up buying it.

While recovering from some surgery, I’ve spent a relaxing afternoon watching the 2004 movie Bobby Jones, Stroke of Genius. I’ve got it on my list of best golf movies.

A rewatching confirms my previous assessment: it’s a beautifully filmed period piece, but is probably a bit slow for non golf fans. For me, the best scenes are the ones that show the incredible strain that competitive golf put on Jones. One of Jones’ most famous quotes is that (and I’m paraphrasing here) competitive golf is played on a five inch course—the space between the ears. My assumption always has been that he was talking about the necessity of playing thinking man’s golf. But watching the film made me think that perhaps he was talking about dealing with his stress.

I also thought it was a nice bit at the end, when Jones is on a drive with OB Keeler. All your life, Keeler says, you’ve been doing things for other people: you played golf for your dad, got degrees for your mother and gave up golf for your wife. What, he asks, are you going to do for yourself? At that point, Jones pulls the car off the road to a pasture and tells Keeler that he’s going to build a golf course—and that this is the first tee. It’s my homage to St. Andrews, he says. Then, as he tees up and swings, the pasture then morphs into a panorama of Augusta National.

Great stuff. And worth a rewatching.

Seven Days In Utopia, a movie based on the book Golf’s Sacred Journey: Seven Days at the Links of Utopia  is set to debut Sept. 2. I’ve got some hopes for this one, based on the official trailer:

Golf movies have a pretty spotty track record. Most haven’t been very good. But in that spirit, I thought I’d reprint my list of the best golf movies. A word of caution. This isn’t comprehensive, and represents only those that I’ve actually seen:

1. The Greatest Game Ever Played

A faithful adaptation of the book that plays well on the big screen. Its no wonder, the author, Mark Frost, once wrote the tv series Hill Street Blues. The casting is perfect and the story compelling. It’s the original David and Goliath sports story. There are a lot of subtle bits in this movie , though, that people who didn’t read the book will miss. For example, the book goes into a great deal on the class conflict between the professionals and the amateurs. If you didn’t read the book, you’ll miss the point that the professionals are always referred to by their first names—Harry Vardon—while the amateurs are referred to with a honorific—Mr. Ouimet.

2. Dead Solid Perfect

Based on the Dan Jenkins novel, this originally appeared on cable. It follows a struggling professional golfer—played by Randy Quaid—as he travels about on tour. Very funny.

3. Tin Cup

This Kevin Costner movie is like Bull Durham for golf. Costner plays a washed up driving range pro who decides to play in the US Open to win the heart of a girl. It’s most famous for the scene where he plunks ball after ball into a pond on the last hole of the Open. It’s a good romantic comedy.

Continued...

A new golf movie is coming out this summer: Seven Days In Utopia

Movie Summary:

SEVEN DAYS IN UTOPIA follows the story of Luke Chisolm (Lucas Black), a talented young golfer set on making the pro tour. When his first big shot turns out to be a very public disaster, Luke escapes the pressures of the game and finds himself unexpectedly stranded in Utopia, Texas, home to eccentric rancher Johnny Crawford (Robert Duvall). But Johnny’s more than meets the eye, and his profound ways of looking at life force Luke to question not only his past choices, but his direction for the future.

Based on David L. Cook’s best-selling book Golf’s Sacred Journey: Seven Days at the Links of Utopia, SEVEN DAYS IN UTOPIA also stars Melissa Leo, Deborah Ann Woll, Brian Geraghty, Jerry Ferrera, Joseph Lyle Taylor, KJ Choi and Kathy Baker. The film is directed by Matthew Dean Russell from a script by Cook, Rob Levine, Russell and Sandra Thrift. The film was produced by Mark G. Mathis (Brick, Precious) and Jason M. Berman (The Dry Land).

Trailer below:

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang—the car of my childhood dreams—is up for auction on Ebay:

THE MOST FAMOUS FILM CAR IN THE WORLD!

ORIGINAL HERO ROAD-GOING “GEN 11” CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG CAR FROM CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG. (MGM, 1968) This is the car, nay, character, that has sparked the imaginations of countless children from the 1968 classic based on James Bond author Ian Fleming’s novel. This is the fully-functional road car purpose-built for principal shooting. Production designer Ken Adam stood firm in his belief that if the film was to be about a car, a real car would have to be built—not a mock-up. Along with Rowland Emmett, who had been assigned the task of creating a series of mad inventions to appear in the film, and the Ford racing team headed by Alan Mann, Adam set about building Chitty. No detail was spared in her creation. Built on a custom ladder frame chassis, many old world forms of car building were employed, and modern technology stepped in to create a vehicle which was both accurate enough to fool veteran and classic car experts, when held under the scrutiny of 70mm cinema cameras, and durable enough to withstand everything from driving in sand, cobbled streets and down staircases. The bonnet is crafted of polished aluminum; the boat deck is hand-crafted of red and white cedar built by boat builders in Buckinghamshire, and the array of brass fittings were obtained from Edwardian cars. Even the alloy dashboard plate is from a British World War I fighter plane! The car weighs approximately 2 tons and measures 17 1/2 feet in length and is powered by a Ford 3 litre V-6 engine mated to an automatic transmission. Chitty rolled out of the workshop in June 1967 and was registered with the number plate “GEN 11” given to her by Ian Fleming in his novel (“GEN 11” had significance in that if you read the number ones as “i’s”, it spelled out the Latin word “Genii” meaning magical person or being). Due to the outlandish capabilities of Chitty, the studio built other non-driving, versions for various stunts including the flying scenes and sea-faring chase. This hero “close-up” car was used in all of the road-driving sequences and is the only car to bear the legitimate “GEN 11” registration plates (the other versions all bore “GEN 11”, but this was purely cosmetic). Chitty has been owned and meticulously maintained by Pierre Picton since the early 1970s. Pierre first became involved with Chitty during filming in England in 1967-68 when he was responsible for maintaining the car during production and for some “double” driving sequences. When filming was completed, Pierre transported and cared for Chitty as she toured promoting the film; a few years later he acquired her from the production company. Chitty remains, to this day, in excellent operational condition. In October of 2010, one of the famous 1964 Aston Martin DB5 cars used in the James Bond film Goldfinger sold for an astounding $4,500,000. A truly once in a lifetime opportunity to acquire the most famous and magical car in cinema history.

I don’t get out to the movies on a regular basis, but I when I saw that the Coen brothers had dared to do a remake of the John Wayne classic, True Grit I decided I had to see it.

I’m glad I did. It’s a terrific movie. In spirit, the Coen Brothers True Grit is more nearly a well-imagined version of the True Grit of novelist Charles Portis than a remake of the somewhat broadly comic John Wayne version. Portis’ novel, originally serialized in the Saturday Evening Post, is perfect fodder for the Coen brothers—a darkly comic story, filled with violence and unique characters.

The broad outlines of the story are known to anyone who has seen the Wayne version (is there anyone who hasn’t seen the original?), so there’s no need to go into it here. Some of the details have changed, though, and especially the ending, which is at best bittersweet. If you’ve read the novel  (and I recommend that you do so—my own copy is a 1968 paperback), you’ll know that the Coen brothers version is true to the source. In truth, I’d always felt a bit cheated by the Wayne version’s ending, happy as it is.

The acid test for the film is in Jeff Bridges’ interpretation of the character Wayne turned into an Oscar winner (although many argue that it was more of a lifetime achievement award). In this, Bridges does an outstanding job. It was impossible for me not to think of Wayne in every scene, but only because Bridges is doing the same role, in the same scenes, with much the same lines. To Bridges’ credit, however, most of my thoughts ran to the contrast, rather than the comparison. Bridges’ Rooster Cogburn is more serious, and dryly funny.

Hailee Steinfeld was better cast in the Mattie Ross than Kim Darby. Darby, who likely was in her twenties, was playing an older teen. Steinfeld is closer to the young teen of the book. In any event, Steinfeld puts in a great performance.

As for Matt Damon’s LaBoeuf, I’m torn. I really liked Glenn Campbell in the original, and always wondered why he didn’t do more movie roles. Damon played LaBoeuf as not terribly bright and not, I think, particularly likable. But to be fair, the Coen brothers’ LaBoeuf didn’t occupy the same space as the original. Campbell’s character was heroic and nearly always in the thick of the story. Damon’s was not onscreen for much of the time, having a tendency to head off on his own, returning for key scenes.

I’ll give this True Grit an “A” and even go so far as to say that it was worth the $18 it cost us to see it on the silver screen.

I was watching Goldfinger the other night on television and chuckled a bit when Auric Goldfinger apologized for his caddy, Odd Job, saying “Golf is not yet the national sport of Korea.”

I don’t think he could make that statement today.