Tin Cup-Transmorphers

TIN CUP (1996)--Directed by Ron Shelton. Stars Kevin Costner, Rene Russo, Don Johnson, Cheech Marin. Very funny movie with an unusual film milieu: golf. The number of good golf movies can probably be counted on the index fingers of one hand (CADDYSHACK--there, I just did it). Make that two hands. Costner stars as a down-and-out golf pro managing a grimy driving range in a dinky South Texas town. Roy "Tin Cup" McAvoy is a lot like Costner's character in Bull BULL DURHAM (Shelton also scripted and helmed BULL DURHAM), except for one thing. While Crash Davis was able to regale his minor-league teammates with tales of his limited time in the majors, "Tin Cup" has never gotten past his college stardom. However, when he meets a beautiful psychologist (Russo) now attached to Roy's college nemesis (played smugly by Johnson), Roy decides the only way to win her is to beat Johnson at the Big Daddy of American golf tourneys: the U.S. Open.

Not as bawdy as BULL DURHAM, but containing a lot of big laughs, a sweet love story, intelligent characters acting in an adult manner, some good supporting performances (Marin as Costner's caddy almost steals the film) and a truly exciting climax. This is one golf match that will leave you on the edge of your seat. Look for cameos by Craig Stadler, Phil Mickelson, Gary McCord, Corey Pavin, Jim Nantz, Ben Wright, Ken Venturi and other names familiar to golf fans.

TIN MEN (1987)--Directed by Barry Levinson. Stars Richard Dreyfuss, Danny DeVito, Barbara Hershey. Dreyfuss and DeVito are rival aluminum-siding salesmen in 1950s Baltimore. They begin a bitter feud when their Cadillacs are involved in a fender-bender. Their series of vicious pranks continue until Dreyfuss seduces DeVito's unhappy wife (Hershey). The leads are great, but Levinson's supporting cast--Jackie Gayle, Seymour Cassel, John Mahoney--provides most of the biggest laughs here. A good comedy that died an undeserved death at the box-office.

THE TINGLER (1959)--Directed by William Castle. Stars Vincent Price, Darryl Hickman, Judith Evelyn. If you've ever wanted to see Price whacked out on LSD, here's your chance. Vinnie plays a pathologist who believes that, when a person is frightened, a lobster-shaped organism called a tingler materializes on that persons spinal cord, and only by emitting a piercing scream can its victim destroy it before it uses its superstrong tail to crush the persons spine. Beginning with that nutty premise, scenarist Robb White concocts a plot that involves Price trolling for a live tingler, which he can only remove from someone who was frightened to death and could not scream. Perhaps someone like the mute woman (Evelyn) who lives above a silent-movie theater. Price takes acid in one scene in an attempt to frighten himself and produce a tingler of his own; he rants and raves, talks to himself, attempts to open a window thats already open, and literally bounces off the walls--it's pretty hammy, even for Price. Producer Castle, who was a more accomplished showman than filmmaker, released THE TINGLER in a process called Percepto, in which selected theater seats were wired with electrical devices designed to give those sitting in them a slight yet scary vibration. During the movie, a tingler escapes into a theater, at which point the screen goes black, and Price's voice emerges from the speakers pleading that the audience scream for your life! Clever gimmick, and the movie's a lot of fun too. Also with Pamela Lincoln, Patricia Cutts, Philip Coolidge and Dallas McKennon. Music by Von Dexter.

TITAN A.E. (2000)--Directed by Don Bluth & Gary Goldman. Stars the voices of Matt Damon, Drew Barrymore, Bill Pullman, Nathan Lane, Janeane Garofalo, John Leguizamo. The latest attempt by 20th Century Fox to compete with the Disney juggernaut for our animation dollar, leaves quite a bit to be desired: the disappointingly derivative script by THE TICK creator Ben Edlund, GO screenwriter John August and Hollywood polisher du jour Joss Whedon, the flat voice performances by established movie stars--including A-lister Matt Damon--and the blaring soundtrack, which is littered with some of the most godawfully inane contemporary rock tunes you can imagine. As much as I wanted to nitpick these inadequacies, I couldn't. As directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman--whose credits include ANASTASIA and THE SECRET OF NIMH--TITAN A.E. adds up to titanic fun, and I was carried away by the flow of the tale even as the film's flaws nagged at me.

The story begins in the 31st Century, when a band of marauding aliens made up of blue-tinged energy known as the Drej blasts the Earth to smithereens in a spectacular action sequence. Just before destruction, young Cale is rescued by his father, the inventor of a gigantic spherical spaceship--the Titan--that is humanitys last hope for survival. Unfortunately, the Titan--and Cale's pops--are lost, and the storyline picks up fifteen years later, when the now-teenaged Cale (Damon), a hot-dogging mechanic on a rundown salvage station, is recruited by Captain Korso (Bill Pullman), an old friend of his fathers, to track down the abandoned Titan. Korso's ship, an imaginatively-designed vessel called the Valkyrie, is crewed by effete first officer Preed (Nathan Lane), fiery weapons expert Stith (Janeane Garofalo), eccentric scientist Gune (John Leguizamo), and curvy pilot Akima (Drew Barrymore), who has hero's-love-interest written all over the purple streaks in her hair. Cale is hesitant to join Korso's quest at first, but, after discovering the secret information entrusted to him by his father--information the Drej need to vanquish the final vestiges of mankind from the universe--decides to jump in with both feet and guns a-blazing.

Filmed in the widescreen 2.35:1 aspect ratio--very unusual for an animated feature--TITAN A.E. blends traditional cell animation with contemporary computer graphics. Although some shots appear blurry and others seem mismatched due to the combination of two-dimensional hand drawings and 3-D-looking CGI, the overall results are outstanding. The gorgeous backgrounds are some of the best I've ever seen, while such creations as a forest made of explosive hydrogen and a floating ring of towering ice crystals provide the setting for some well-paced action scenes. The story--which combines elements of STAR WARS, JONNY QUEST and STAR TREK II among others--is mostly an excuse to show off the lively space battles and unusual creature designs. The love story involving Cale and Akima is perfunctory, and isn't helped any by the lackluster performances of Damon and Barrymore. In fact, among the cast, only Leguizamo, who provides his character with a series of squeaks and squeals, and Lane, who seems to be joyfully channeling Vincent Price, are better than adequate. Graeme Revell's cheesy '80s-sounding synth score, which seems recycled from an old AIRWOLF episode, actually works within the context of the old-fashioned space operatics, although the many lame rock songs which litter the soundtrack will only ensure that the movie will date as badly as Joan Baez's warbling in the otherwise neat SILENT RUNNING. Also with Charles Rocket, Jim Cummings, David L. Lander, Tone Loc, Jim Breuer and Ron Perlman.

TITANIC (1997)--Directed by James Cameron. Stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane. The most expensive movie ever made (Paramount and 20th Century Fox spent over $200 million!) unexpectedly became the biggest box-office smash ever, and is the one film of the decade most likely to be viewed repeatedly fifty years from now. Cameron uses the tragedy of the Titanic's sinking and the deaths of nearly 2200 passengers and crew as the backdrop for an old-fashioned love story between roguish American drifter Jack Dawson (DiCaprio) and 17-year-old rich girl Rose (a luminous Winslet), engaged to an upper-class snob played by Zane.

It's easy to see why this struck box-office gold: it literally has something for everyone--attractive leads, romance, action, special effects, mystery. Cameron also wrote, produced, and edited TITANIC, and he became so immersed in the work that he relinquished his own salary to cover budget increases (word is as TITANIC's grosses passed the $200 million mark in North America, the studios generously gave some back to the film's creator--a rare example of Hollywood studios doing the right thing). His screenplay is the film's weakest link; there was really no reason to turn Zane's character into a one-dimensional villain (or for any villain to even exist), and much of the dialogue is silly or corny. However, it is impossible not to be moved by many of the film's images (especially shots of the real-life Titanic filmed two-and-a-half miles beneath the Atlantic by Cameron himself). Sure, it's manipulative, but Cameron has done a masterful job combining state-of-the-art technology with old-fashioned moviemaking to result in what history will judge to be an American classic.