Pro golfer Luke Chisholm (Black) self- destructs on the last hole of a tournament and takes off in his car. He sees a fork in the road and takes the road to Utopia, a Texas town. After crashing into a fence he is met by Johnny Crawford (Duvall) a rancher and once a pro golfer back in the day. Johnny sees an opportunity to help the young pro and he gives Luke a proposition.
This started out like a pretty good golf story, but there were problems with the acting and pacing all around. I wasn't convinced about anything because I had the feeling none of the actors were convinced either. Oh, they went thru the motions, but you could tell there was something missing: belief in what they were saying.
Duvall pontificates throughout this and that's okay up to a point, but I had the feeling he knew he had to say the lines, but again, there was something missing: conviction. He said his lines like he was on roller skates. It was like we really didn't get into the story but here come the lines anyway. Something was missing: conviction. Maybe it was too much pontification. The scenes and dialogues felt rushed, and there was too much hesitation when other actors said their lines. Again, no conviction. Perhaps there was too much material to cover to allow a scene to develop so it became comfortable, likable and convincing.
The last quarter of the movie became a religious quest and it became a little too much. The director should have checked with Kirk Cameron (child star on Growing Pains TV show) who stars in many of these types of religious themed movies. Actually, I felt blind-sided. For most of the movie, it was about golf training, such as it was, then we get hit with a pretty heavy religious aspect the rest of the way. And, here we find conviction in Johnny's dialogue. Took long enough to find it. Where was it before?
Of course, Luke manages to learn the lessons Johnny gave him and when he has a putt on the last hole of the Texas Open to win the tournament, the movie stops in mid-putt and we get hit with: go to http://www.didhemaketheputt.com.
OK, I bit and went there and I have no idea if he made the putt, but that wasn't the point of the movie, now was it? And, when I went there, I was hit with more religious material.
Had I known about all the religious stuff in the beginning, this probably wouldn't have bothered me. Hey, I have watched some Kirk Cameron movies and they are good. But, here, I felt I was blind-sided. After all this was not anything like The Greatest Game Ever Played or a Bobby Jones story. (5/10) Violence: Not really. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: Soft stuff only and not much of it.
This started out like a pretty good golf story, but there were problems with the acting and pacing all around. I wasn't convinced about anything because I had the feeling none of the actors were convinced either. Oh, they went thru the motions, but you could tell there was something missing: belief in what they were saying.
Duvall pontificates throughout this and that's okay up to a point, but I had the feeling he knew he had to say the lines, but again, there was something missing: conviction. He said his lines like he was on roller skates. It was like we really didn't get into the story but here come the lines anyway. Something was missing: conviction. Maybe it was too much pontification. The scenes and dialogues felt rushed, and there was too much hesitation when other actors said their lines. Again, no conviction. Perhaps there was too much material to cover to allow a scene to develop so it became comfortable, likable and convincing.
The last quarter of the movie became a religious quest and it became a little too much. The director should have checked with Kirk Cameron (child star on Growing Pains TV show) who stars in many of these types of religious themed movies. Actually, I felt blind-sided. For most of the movie, it was about golf training, such as it was, then we get hit with a pretty heavy religious aspect the rest of the way. And, here we find conviction in Johnny's dialogue. Took long enough to find it. Where was it before?
Of course, Luke manages to learn the lessons Johnny gave him and when he has a putt on the last hole of the Texas Open to win the tournament, the movie stops in mid-putt and we get hit with: go to http://www.didhemaketheputt.com.
OK, I bit and went there and I have no idea if he made the putt, but that wasn't the point of the movie, now was it? And, when I went there, I was hit with more religious material.
Had I known about all the religious stuff in the beginning, this probably wouldn't have bothered me. Hey, I have watched some Kirk Cameron movies and they are good. But, here, I felt I was blind-sided. After all this was not anything like The Greatest Game Ever Played or a Bobby Jones story. (5/10) Violence: Not really. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: Soft stuff only and not much of it.