10 Comments

  1. Norris

    What’s more boring than golf? A movie about golf

  2. glew

    Charlize is pretty, and so is the scenery. That’s about it.
    If I were an African American, I’m pretty sure I’d be sick to death of mystical black people who seem to know everything.

    Add that to the dull-as-a-box-of-pudding story, the annoying acting of that guy who I think used to be on Tales of the Gold Monkey, the 1-800-COLLECT acting of Mr. Ripley, and you have yourself one boring, annoying movie.

    Come on Jeremiah, give us another Sneakers already. Sheesh, even Legal Eagles was more entertaining than this tepid rehash of an obscure God-parable some mediocre author made a mint on. Not obscure you say? Well, then you’re not an average American movie goer, like myself.

    The kid does all right, at least, and like I said Charlize is cute. That gets it four points.

    Oh man, and all the townspeople. I think I’ll take a point off for the townspeople. Definitely.

    Rent "A River Runs Through It" instead of this one. It’s better. Still kinda dull, but that’s like comparing the Titanic to a kayak flipping over. I mean, "Legend of Bagger Vance" is the TITANIC of boring sports movies. More boring even than Field of Dreams. And I fell asleep halfway through that stinker, right about the point where Amy Madigan and Bull Durham meet each other at the stairs and say "I had a weird dream" and "I had the same dream!"

    Talk about your deus ex machina! Gimme a break. Bah. Phooey.

  3. bily

    Butchering of a Book
    Steven Pressfield’s 1995 novel, The Legend of Bagger Vance: Golf and the Game of Life, is a wonderful mythological story detailing a match pitting two of the world’s greatest golfers, Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen, against each other with fictional Savannah hero Rannulph Junuh playing in the match as well. Pressfield details the changes Rannulph undergoes along with his strange, mysterious caddy, Bagger Vance. Pressfield sets the scene at Krewe Island on a grand and epic scale. He takes a story that could have very easily become a cheap laugh and turns it into a compelling story. In Robert Redford’s film version of the story, he practically wipes his behind with the story.
    I hate to be so frank and crude like that, but that is exactly what I felt after watching this movie. Where Pressfield made an imaginary story serious, Redford takes an imaginary story and makes it a cheap laugh. Redford takes many liberties with the story, and leaves many questions unanswered at the end of the film. And these are not even moral questions that the film raises, but just plot questions and "Why the heck did that happen?" Had I not read the book before the movie, I probably would have had even more questions.

    The Legend of Bagger Vance follows the same storyline of the book, which is the match between Junuh, Jones and Hagen. Pressfield’s main motive was to make points about life, the "authentic swing" and other mythological points that would be extremely confusing to name here. Redford, and writer Jeremy Leven, seem to have no clue what to focus on. There re-telling of the golf match is good, but their execution of the morals behind the story is poor. In the book, the golf match is the least important thing going on. In the film, the golf match is the only coherent and understandable event taking place.

    In perhaps one of the greatest mistakes in film this year, Charlize Theron was cast as Adele Invergordon. While I love Charlize, the part is horrible, for anyone. In the book, Adele was mentioned in one, maybe two sentences. In the film, she is one of the MAIN CHARACTERS! Why would such a drastic move be made in a film that could have written itself? The Hollywood Film Machine, that’s what. It seems that every studio film produced MUST have a romantic subplot, and writer Leven follows right in line. Adele is a confusing character, and Charlize seems confused while playing her. Redford could have cut out all of her scenes and the film would have not been harmed; in fact, it probably would have been better.

    J. Michael Moncrief plays the young Hardy Greaves, our guide through the film. Moncrief has an "aw gee shucks" attitude that may have played well on the Disney Channel, but becomes downright annoying in the film. He is always got a stupid grin on his face, even in the most serious of situations, and he makes a mockery of such a well-written character. Where Haley Joel Osment knew how to play a child character without becoming too melodramatic, Moncrief seems to have indifference to how stupid he appears on screen. The thrill for him is actually being on screen. You can’t blame a kid for trying his best, but you can blame a director and casting director for not picking the right actor for the role. So while Moncrief poorly plays Greaves, the blame lies right in the lap of Redford, who assumes no one can resist a cute face on screen.

    Where Theron and Moncrief are horribly miscast, Matt Damon and Will Smith are right on the money. Damon plays Junuh, the golfer trying to find his swing. Smith plays Bagger Vance, the mystical caddy. Their performances are powerful, and their seriousness lends credence to a story that is terribly mishandled by Redford. Damon is always a solid performer, but Smith proves something this time out. While he does not lose his distinct sense of humor, Smith is able to let it take a back seat to his acting capabilities. Hopefully, Smith will pop up in more roles like this one.

    Just in case you have not been paying attention, Robert Redford hacks this movie to bits. One particular annoyance I have not voiced yet is Redford’s choices on how to display the mysticism of the film. Instead of intelligently implementing parts of Pressfield’s novel, Redford chooses to use cheesy sky and forest shots that seem to come straight from the nature channel. Redford is so pre-occupied with making the movie look mythical that he forgets you also need a good story to win an Oscar. And that’s what Redford does throughout the film: pander for awards.

    With a film like this, however, Redford is going to have to beg on his hands and knees to win anything this award season. Damon and Smith, however, might be able to stroll down the red carpet.

  4. exfvuh

    I didn’t feel that you needed to know anything about golf to enjoy this movie. The cinematography was magnificient.

  5. breton

    Slow and Boring
    It is a sleeper, good one to watch if you are tired. Typical sports story, underdog wins, hohum.

  6. kupu

    Watching this, i thought for a moment i had gone back in time, but not the way Mr. Redford had wished us to feel, but more like i was seeing a re make of "The River Runs Through It", it doesn’t get any more cliched than this.

  7. byronn

    You have to like golf to get it

  8. ppri

    A good movie. A little syrupy, but very entertaining.

  9. papore

    This movie sucks
    This movie was slow and boring. I usually like these types of fantasy-sports movies, but this one was horrible. I fell asleep in the middle of the movie

  10. Silvia

    Excellent movie but the golf gets in the way. ha!
    This movie is so glossy and very well made. A true romance. You don’t even need the chemistry between Matt Damon and Chelise Theron for it. It’s a heavily atmospheric romance that could be about anything but golf is the setting. It’s about life’s tradgedies that affect us and surviving by rekindling hope, faith, love of life, etc. Most of the golf scenes were very well done too but I felt that aspect took up too much of the film actually for my tastes

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