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.

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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.

Golf - Links in Time (A&E DVD Archives)

From A&E and The History Channel. I vaguely remember enjoying this when watching on television and am wondering if I want out the bucks to have a dvd copy.

Handicapped: A Documentary About Bad Golf

Grade: A+
Teacher’s Comments: The Spinal Tap of Golf Movies

If you’ve seen the mockumentaries “This Is Spinal Tap”, “A Mighty Wind” or “Best In Show,” you have an idea of what to expect from “Handicapped: A Documentary About Bad Golf.” It’s an absolutely hilarious look at a private tournament for bad golfers, delivered in a totally deadpan, documentary style.

Leading man in the drama is Al Doermat, a porta potty millionaire, whose enthusiasm for golf is as strong as his swing is bad. Yearning for competition, yet stymied by a lack of skill, in 1994 Doermat founded the “Al’s Average Man Invitational,” a private tournament that initially had a $100,000 prize (paid for by Al).

The movie covers the 2006 tournament, where, fortified by Buick and Wilson Golf sponsorships, the prize had risen to $250,000. Thirty golfers received invitations to the tryouts, which involved a skills competition designed to weed out the bad golfers from the truly horrible (I won’t tell you how they resolved that one—it’d spoil the fun). The thirty were reduced to eleven (including Al), who then proceeded to play a nine hole elimination tournament. On each hole, the player with the highest score is eliminated, while the remainder proceed to the next tee.

Narrated by a local sports caster with utter seriousness, the documentary covers the Average Man Invitational as though it were the final day of the Masters. How the sportscaster was able to keep a straight face is beyond me. The players are utterly, hopelessly inept. Worse, though, are their bizarre personalities, and apparent indifference to (or ignorance of) their own embarrassing play.

Interestingly, among the competitors is John Barmon, who played Spaulding Smails in Caddyshack. Not surprisingly, he gets asked a few questions about appearing in that movie. Another cast member is named Tom Coyne, who claims to be an author;Tom Coyne also is the name of a relatively famous golf author, but it can’t possibly be the same guy.

There also are a couple of funny subplots. One involves the caddymaster’s futile attempts to find caddies for the competitors. The other is a running feud between two of Al’s employees who are helping at the event.

The producers have done an excellent job grounding in reality an otherwise surrealistic event. There’s little in the film to break the suspension of disbelief—other than the name of the sponsor, Al Doermat Al has never been competitive in his own bad golfers tournament, and thus truly is a doormat for throwing away hundreds of thousands of his own money. There’s even a website for Al’s Average Man Tournament. The producers maintain that it’s a real event, but I prefer to think of it as fictional.

Either way, it’s an extremely funny film, and would make a great gift for the golfer in your life.