Tin Cup (1996) Reviews

• Very Funny, Costner at his best.

  Brad K.1998-12-30

  Kevin Costner (Dances with Wolves, The Untouchables) is a great actor, in my opinion, but most critics and some people don't like him because he takes too many "hero" roles. For those people, Tin Cup is a movie you will like, for those who like Costner, you will love this film. Cosnter plays a local star golfer in Texas who runs a driving range that isn't doing well. He's a good golfer, but because of some poor decisions never turned professional. He has a lazy life goofing around with his friends and caddy, wonderfully played by Cheech Marin (Paulie, From Dusk Til Dawn). One day when a beautiful psychiatrist, played by Rene Russo (Ransom, Major League), comes in to take lessons from him, he decides to go after her. The problem is that she isn't grungy and lazy like he is and she's dating a professional golfer who went to college with Costner. He is well-played by Don Johnson (Dead Bang, Guilty as Sin). Costner and Johnson hate each other and soon get into competitions to impress Russo. Eventually, Costner decides to impress her he'll try and qualify for the US Open golf tournament. This is a very funny film and was not a "chick-flick" like I was worried it would be. Costner is excellent in the lead playing a completely likable slob. Russo is solid as his love interest. Highly recommended.

• Costner's best movie? Maybe

  reporterman20002003-08-24

  From an acting standpoint, "Tin Cup" may be Kevin Costner's best movie. Here he plays Roy McAvoy, a burned-out, washed-out, down-n-out golf pro a way out in West Texas. He's broke, drunk most of the time, and convinced of his own worthlessness -- hence his attraction to poetry and a puffed-up opinion of his own heroics on the golf course (he's got to have something hold on to). Roy is just this side of being a complete bum -- this is one of the few movies I've seen on any subject that actually addresses the financial condition of its loose-living hero. "Tin Cup" is all about the dire straits of this character, and Costner is more than up to the challenge of playing this guy convincingly. Costner for once packs everything into his performance: charm, wit, sarcasm, hopelessness, bitterness, and more than a little arrogance. He is funny, laidback and shows remarkable athletic skill. He tops his career-best work in "Bull Durham" here (not surprising, since this is another Ron Shelton film). The movie also works great as a classic heroic Quest story. McAvoy is on a mythic quest, not for the perfect 18 holes, certainly not for money, but for love. "Tin Cup" could easily have been titled "Quixote Jousts at Windmills in West Texas." Best of all, McAvoy KNOWS he's on a quest; when he refers to it in his dialogue, it sounds pathtically funny, but when you hold this story up to the ancient pattern of the heroic quest as described by Joseph Campbell, it really rings true. Probably the most interesting aspect of "Tin Cup" is that it also works as a metaphor for what Costner has done with his career. Here's a guy who could have played it safe and easy after all those Oscars, but took off on crazy flights of fancy like "Waterworld" and lost badly. (He continued to play unsafe shots after 1996, with almost every movie that followed this one.) McAvoy plays the game his way, on a dare, on a bet, with outrageous egotism and a willingness to lose it all -- publicly. That's what Costner has done at his own game. Was "Open Range" the dreaded safe shot that corrected his course?

• Just an awesome film

  PabloGT2001-02-04

  If somebody watches Tin Cup and does not find this movie a "must-see", it might be either because you don't know golf, or because you take life too easy. This film is nothing but irresistible. It combines those tiny-little-moments that we golfers must face every time we are in the golf course (yes, we may not be facing the US Open title, but golf gives us a chance to know ourselves every time we hit the ball: Do I play safe or do I take chances? Am I a winner, or am I a loser? Do I have nerves, or do I simply breakdown?). Tin Cup goes insight all of that, and it shows it to us, in such a simple form through the eyes and life of Roy McAvoy and his buddies, that at the end you find yourself with nothing but the urge to rent it again. Forget for a while about the romance and the girl, if so you want, but don't deny that the songs, the views, and the dialogue are superb. See it as a great sport movie, with a clear lesson to all of us: In life as in Golf, it is you who make that final call. A good call means success; a bad one, well I guess you know where the rest goes.

• Excellent Second

  UACW2002-08-11

  While it may never be as famous as its forerunner Bull Durham (which also starred Costner and was also written and directed by Shelton) Tin Cup has legs of its own to stand on. With a brilliant soundtrack, excellent support from Russo, Johnson, Marin and others (including two Costners) and the writing and direction of Ron Shelton, this is a winner - an incredibly funny and gripping comedy with a smashing bit of irresistible bravado thrown in for good measure. Where Bull Durham didn't have a climax per se, Tin Cup does - and what a climax that is. And although you may in retrospect see the outcome as predictable, odds are you won't guess this by a mile working into it the first time: the suspense really works too. For what it's worth, the riddle the movie starts on has been traced as far back as The Cosby Show. A definite keeper.

• Scores high (or low? this is a golf movie after all)

  philblyghton2005-01-07

  Some actors are born to play a certain type of character. A youthful Tom Cruise was the archetypal wise-cracking upstart with aspirations for future greatness; Mark Ruffalo (of Collateral fame) has mastered the 'just got out of bed' role; and any wife played by Joan Allen is both sexually and spiritually unfulfilled. However there is no one who plays the laconic ageing sports pro better than Kevin Costner. Tin Cup sees Costner at his absolute best, embodying the everyman charm that won him so many fans in 'Field of Dreams' and 'Bull Durham', yet exceeding these performances with a depth and sense of impending fallibility that engages the audience to the extent that we hit every long iron and read every putt of Roy McAvoy's long journey into golfing legend. Costner's McAvoy is introduced as a washed up Texan driving range pro, a once prodigious college golfer whose talent was unquestionable, but who was hamstrung by an explosive temperament. Its not until be begins to teach psychiatrist Molly Griswold (Rene Russo), and has a reunion with college rival David Sims (Don Johnson) that his competitive flame is reignited, and he seeks to qualify for the US Open prove his obvious brilliance to both himself and to the watching world. This wouldn't be Costner if he didn't have half an eye on Russo's character as well, and the two plots are interwoven to excellent effect. I love the golfing action in the movie. While some of the shot making from McAvoy is simply farcical (if anyone's ever got backspin on a 250 yard 3 wood i'd love to hear from you - I trust my inbox will remain vacant), director Shelton racks up the tension, especially on the back nine stretch of the US Open, which inevitably sees McAvoy paired with Sims in a race for the trophy. Costner actually lowered his handicap to single figures whilst shooting the movie, so the action has an air of authenticity to it, especially considering the cameos of well known US Tour pros such as Phil Mickelson, Corey Pavin and Craig Stadler. The familiar voice of legendary commentator Gary McCord adds to the feeling that the proceedings are not that divorced from reality. Ben Curtis (an unknown) won the Open Championship in 2003 - his first tournament win. The supporting cast is excellent. This was Johnson's last major film for a long time, yet it is textured valedictory performance, and Russo adds radiance with her subtle beauty. Cheech Marin threatens to steal the show as McAvoy's world-weary caddy, yet Costner is the big star here. I was delighted with the film's conclusion, an overt rebellion against sporting conformity. As a film in this genre, Tin Cup is a brilliant success. Costner has since gone on to bigger and worser things yet signs of a return to form are promising, his new baseball movie The Upside of Anger (in which, naturally, he plays an ageing pro) is released in March 2005. While not everything about the film is good (a little less mawkishness wouldn't go amiss in the romance scenes, combined with as little of Linda Hart as is humanly possible), Costner is on top form, and even if you don't like golf there is enough here for anyone to enjoy. Highly recommended. 8.5/10