Latest news with #OwenWilson
Washington Post
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
The secret to a great golf movie
In the opening moments of 'Tin Cup,' Rene Russo's Dr. Molly Griswold takes a lesson from driving range pro Roy McAvoy. After yet another duff, she snorts, 'This is without a doubt the stupidest, silliest, most idiotic grotesquerie masquerading as a game that has ever been invented.' 'Yes, ma'am,' McAvoy, played by Kevin Costner, replies. 'That's why I love it!' Griswold and McAvoy provided an accidental synopsis of the golf movie: The stupider and sillier these films are, the more we love them. The forthcoming release of 'Happy Gilmore 2,' debuting Friday on Netflix, adds to the relatively slight canon of the golf movie, a subgenre whose scorecard shows birdies and bogeys alike. Scripted treatment of golf is having a moment on screens big and small right now, including the successful launch of Apple TV's 'Stick,' which stars Owen Wilson as a washed-out, squandered-potential pro. The current moment might not equal 1996, when both 'Happy Gilmore' and 'Tin Cup' debuted in theaters. But since 2025 also marks the 45th anniversary of the release of 'Caddyshack,' this year is high on the leader board. The appeal of the golf movie is obvious. The game presents decision points fit for a hero. Lay up or risk it all? It inherently parallels life: You must play the ball as it lies, the only shot that matters is the next one, etc. It is the ultimate insider sport, which makes it a ripe template for an underdog narrative — the Cinderella story, out of nowhere, as a certain gopher-hunting greenskeeper might say. The pitfalls are just as clear. The expanse of a golf course can be difficult to capture on film. The aesthetics of the game are not dynamic, particularly to a broad audience. Any attempt to mirror the game's lessons and plumb for deeper meaning can quickly bleed into clichéd corniness. What separates a great golf movie from a bad one? The safest play is to make a comedy. A good golf movie can revere the game. The best ones lampoon it. Golf takes itself too seriously, which makes it ideal for sending up. 'Caddyshack' contains almost no story, and yet it is a classic for how it uses golf as a template for memorable lines and constant jokes. The silliness of golf is inherent; it takes an outsider to see it. 'If I dressed like that,' Adam Sandler's Happy Gilmore says upon turning up at his first golf tournament, pointing to a spectator in plaid pants, 'I'd have to kick my own ass.' Golf movies of all kinds are united by underdog protagonists. It is the ultimate insider's game, and so it makes sense that in golf movies the heroes are uniformly outsiders. Rannulph Junuh (Matt Damon) of 'The Legend of Bagger Vance' is a broken man, Happy Gilmore is a wannabe hockey player with no prospects, and 'Caddyshack's' Al Czervik (Rodney Dangerfield) just wants to party. Women in golf movies are rarely allowed inside the ropes, existing as inspirational love interests cheering from the sidelines, often shirking the ethical imperatives of their nonplaying jobs to support their player. A PGA public relations executive falls for tour member Gilmore. McAvoy sleeps with his therapist. That may be art's way of imitating a real-life golf culture that has routinely presented women an appallingly obstructive barrier for entry. Nothing, though, can be as perfect as McAvoy's well-struck golf shot. Here's a hole-by-hole breakdown of golf's most significant movies, divots and all. Shelton's romantic comedy shows how much authenticity matters. The right details allow the audience — particularly a golf-savvy audience — to forgive the most unrealistic plot twists. As Costner's Roy McAvoy snaps clubs over his knees to prove a self-destructive point to caddie/best friend Romeo (Cheech Marin), his recollected bad shots are 'shanked,' 'hooked,' 'skulled' and 'chili-dipped.' He tells Romeo, 'you're the Mexican Mac O'Grady,' an if-you-know-you-know nod to the golf-famous swing guru. At the U.S. Open driving range they happen upon Lee Janzen and Billy Mayfair, two perfectly indiscriminate mid-1990s Tour denizens. When Roy takes the bet to smack a ball through a bar window, he decides he must hit a 'hooded' 4-iron. The screenplay (by Shelton and John Norville) talks the talk better than any golf movie, if not sports movie. All those details allow the final scene to land, no matter how preposterous. No golfer is going to smack two sleeves of balls into a pond on the final hole of the U.S. Open. But the golf details are so grounded that it delivers. There are some well-done golf nuggets. Actor Joel Gretsch nails the languid arc of Bobby Jones's swing. Bagger Vance (Will Smith) gives a well-informed soliloquy about grain on putting greens. The impressive golf parts, though, are undermined by almost everything else. The movie wallows in tedious, overdone Southern affectation without the slightest attempt to reckon with the racism of 1920s Georgia. The movie dawdles on its way to the golf match, and once it arrives the golf scenes are slow and dull. The golf never feels like it really matters. Aside from a few facile aphorisms ('I always felt a man's grip on this club was just like a man's grip on this world'), golf is used only as a means to the self-discovery of broken war veteran Rannulph Junuh (Damon). The movie never explores what made him great at golf, why it mattered to him or why it uniquely can save him. Rannulph could have been a fly fisherman or a painter and the movie wouldn't be all that different. The movie gains interest when seen through a lens the filmmakers may or may not have intended: Bagger Vance isn't real, not even as an angel or ghost or some other form of apparition. He exists only in Rannulph's head, a blend of his former self, inner self and conscience. Bagger shows up only when Rannulph starts hitting balls again. He says Rannulph's shoes are 'just about my size.' The only people who interact with Bagger knew him before the war, except Hardy Greaves (J. Michael Moncrief), who idolizes and knows everything about him. After Rannulph finds his ball in the woods during his final-round collapse, Bagger reminds him, 'I'm right here with you. I've been here all along.' When Rannulph's ball moves in front of the group and he prepares to call a penalty on himself, Hardy tells him, 'Only you and me seen it.' But Rannulph takes the penalty anyway and that's when Bagger quits — the moment we know that Rannulph has shed his former self. But, anyway, this is not a good golf movie. If it's possible to say this as a compliment, 'The Greatest Game Ever Played' is sepia-toned sports movie schmaltz. The story of local amateur Francis Ouimet (Shia LaBeouf) and English professional Harry Vardon (Stephen Dillane) at the 1913 U.S. Open delivers exactly what you would expect even it hadn't been based on a true story. Like a mishit drive into the second cut, it's not gonna hurt ya. When done right, as it is here, the drama of golf translates to film. Tension builds before every shot, gets released with each swing and then builds again. There are no surprises, but the final match really delivers what the title promises. The plot of Mark Frost's screenplay (adapting his 2002 book) mildly subverts insider-vs.-outsider convention. Vardon is an infiltrator, too, evicted from his childhood stone hut on the Isle of Jersey by businessmen who want the land for a golf course. The 'gentlemen' in top hats haunt him into the present day and feed self-doubt that causes his hands to shake on the greens. The villain instead is the wealthy newspaper owner who thinks he can ride Vardon's victory to a place in England's cabinet. There's no reason 'Caddyshack' should succeed. There is no plot to speak of. The characters don't develop. Each chunk of dialogue seems to belong to a different movie. And yet it is a classic, quoted daily on every driving range and practice range in America. 'Caddyshack' proves the utility of golf as a canvas for comedy. The outlandishness of Dangerfield's Al Czervik, bemusement of Ty Webb (Chevy Chase) and absurdity of Carl Spackler (Bill Murray) somehow work together because they all are contrasted against the same thing. The movie, written by Ramis, Brian Doyle-Murray and Douglas Kenney, uses Bushwood Country Club as a sandbox for oddballs and outcasts to play in, with Judge Smails (Ted Knight) the perfect embodiment of deluded refinement. The undercurrent of rebellion comes through because of what golf represents, and it ties all the loose ends together. And good lord is 'Caddyshack' still funny 45 years later. 'Happy Gilmore' is the best golf movie ever made. It is sweet and screwball and delivers the climactic triumph any sports movie promises. The pacing is perfect: Fifteen minutes in, the title character has broken up with his girlfriend, learned his grandma has had her house seized and met his guru Chubbs (Carl Weathers), and Shooter McGavin (Christopher McDonald) is rolling into the Waterbury Open asking Virginia Venit (Julie Bowen) for a Pepsi. ('Oh, and Miss? Diet.') Happy's complete ignorance of golf's customs allows the movie to mine them all for jokes. He shows up in a Bruins jersey and tackles his caddie when he thinks he's stealing his clubs. His homeless caddie picks up the quarter another player used as a ball marker. He collects oversize winner's checks for down-the-board finishes. He constantly engages in what Verne Lundquist would call 'amazingly bizarre behavior.' 'Happy Gilmore' manages to break the rules that 'Tin Cup' follows so well. The 18th hole of the Tour Championship is a par 3? Come on. But the movie pulls it off and surpasses even 'Caddyshack' for quotability. 'Now your back's gonna hurt, because you just pulled landscaping duty.' 'Yeah, how'd he finish again? Dead last? Yeah, he had a good day though.' 'Quite large and economically diverse crowd here at the Michelob Invitational.' There's reason to worry about 'Happy Gilmore 2.' The trailers are overstuffed with cameos and physical comedy. They didn't release screeners for critics. Then again, it's hard to see Sandler back in that Bruins jersey and not think of the words of Gary Potter, Kevin Nealon's spacey tour pro in the original: 'I feel a lot of solid energy coming out of you. Good positive aura. Great. Great. It's all great.'
USA Today
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Zac Efron's shirtless golf groove is the perfect 'Stick' TV theme song: Hear it now
The theme song to the AppleTV+ golf series "Stick" is so infectiously good that the ditty is the soundtrack to Zac Efron's viral shirtless golf outing. The actor and his brother, Dylan Efron, showed off impressive swings — and serious abs — in the golfing video posted to Dylan's TikTok and Instagram Reels accounts on July 22 with the simple comment: "Sticks." The comment referred to the series "Stick," which features the theme song, "And It's Gone." The Efron brothers are feeling the song that plays in the video. "Stick" stars Owen Wilson as one-time golf phenom Pryce Cahill, who overcomes personal trauma to make a comeback as a mentor. Executive producer Jason Keller told USA TODAY that he struggled to find the perfect song to reflect Cahill's "vibe" of optimism, pain, and renewal for the series (which is now streaming its Season 1 finale). Owen Wilson talks 'Stick': Star loved outputting these pros in AppleTV+ series "I was looking for the right feeling, but I just couldn't find it," said Keller, who stumbled across the Ohio-based folk band Caamp during the search. "I knew immediately they were the perfect fit for the show. I've since learned they are a very popular band." Keller asked Caamp lead singer Taylor Meier, who happens to be an avid golfer, to compose the "Stick" theme song. "I had to kind of talk him into it. I think he wanted nothing to do with me," Keller admitted. "But I asked him to read the scripts and kept talking to him about what I was hoping for." Keller was working on the golf set when he received a sound file and a text from Meier. "He wrote, 'Try this. Is this what you're looking for? And it was that song,'" Keller continued. "I played it out loud for everyone while we were shooting the show. It was perfect right out of the gate." What's the theme song from 'Sticks'? Caamp recorded "And It's Gone" while making the band's recently released fifth studio album, "Copper Changes Color." The album debuted on Spotify's Top 10 Albums: Debut USA. The band is on its first headlining tour in three years with back-to-back sold-out shows at New York City's Radio Music Hall (Sept. 12 and 13). You can stream "And It's Gone" here. Note: The song title has nothing to do with whatever happened to Zac Efron's shirt on the golf course. How to watch Owen Wilson in 'Stick' All of Season 1 of "Stick" is now streaming on AppleTV+. On July 23, the day the "Stick" Season 1 finale dropped, AppleTV+ confirmed that Season 2 is in the works. Listen to "Copper Changes Color" here.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Owen Wilson golf comedy 'Stick' renwed for Season 2
July 23 (UPI) -- Apple TV+ announced Wednesday that it has renewed Stick for a second season. The news coincides with the Season 1 finale. Stick launched on June 4 and stars Owen Wilson as Pryce Cahill, nicknamed Stick, who is 20 years past his professional golf career after a public meltdown. Now unemployed and divorced, Pryce seeks redemption by mentoring teenage golfer Santi (Peter Dager). Wilson, Dager, Marc Maron, Mariana Treviño and Lilli Kay will return for Season 2. Jason Keller created Stick. In a statement, Wilson said, "I think we all had a great time making it. It's really nice to see the show connecting with people and to know that we get a chance to continue the story!" Season 1 featured cameos by guest stars Collin Morikawa, Keegan Bradley, Max Homa, Wyndham Clark, Jim Nantz, Trevor Immelman and Dan Rapaport from the golf world. Actors Judy Greer and Timothy Olyphant also recurred. Solve the daily Crossword
UPI
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- UPI
Owen Wilson golf comedy 'Stick' renwed for Season 2
1 of 5 | Owen Wilson, seen at the 2022 premiere of "Secret Headquarters in New York City, stars in "Stick." File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo July 23 (UPI) -- Apple TV+ announced Wednesday that it has renewed Stick for a second season. The news coincides with the Season 1 finale. Stick launched on June 4 and stars Owen Wilson as Pryce Cahill, nicknamed Stick, who is 20 years past his professional golf career after a public meltdown. Now unemployed and divorced, Pryce seeks redemption by mentoring teenage golfer Santi (Peter Dager). Wilson, Dager, Marc Maron, Mariana Treviño and Lilli Kay will return for Season 2. Jason Keller created Stick. In a statement, Wilson said, "I think we all had a great time making it. It's really nice to see the show connecting with people and to know that we get a chance to continue the story!" Season 1 featured cameos by guest stars Collin Morikawa, Keegan Bradley, Max Homa, Wyndham Clark, Jim Nantz, Trevor Immelman and Dan Rapaport from the golf world. Actors Judy Greer and Timothy Olyphant also recurred.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Stick Renewed for Season 2 at Apple TV+ — Plus, Grade Season 1
Apple TV+ is teeing up some more Stick: The Owen Wilson-led golf comedy has been renewed for Season 2, the streamer announced Wednesday. The renewal news comes on the heels of the show's Season 1 finale, which is now available to stream. More from TVLine Save the Dates: Jessica Chastain's Savant, Monster Season 3, Tempest K-Drama and More Wednesday Snags Early Renewal for Season 3 Loot Season 3 Gets Fall Release Date - Plus, Watch New Teaser 'I am inspired and humbled by the audience reaction to Stick, and I'm thrilled to be making a second season with this magical cast, led by the incomparable Owen Wilson and the wonderful creative team at Apple TV+,' said creator Jason Keller in a statement. 'It's a joy to be able to continue this story. Most importantly, however, this Season 2 order will provide me with an undeniable excuse to play even more golf. Thank you, Apple TV+.' 'I think we all had a great time making it,' said star and executive producer Wilson. 'It's really nice to see the show connecting with people and to know that we get a chance to continue the story!' An A-to-Z List of 300+ Scripted Series View List In Season 1, Wilson stars as Pryce Cahill, an over-the-hill, ex-pro golfer whose career was derailed prematurely 20 years ago. 'After the collapse of his marriage and while working at an Indiana sporting goods store, Pryce hedges his bets and future entirely on a troubled 17-year-old golf phenom named Santi (Peter Dager),' reads the official description. 'Stick is a heartfelt, feel-good sports comedy about a found family and their relationships set within the world of golf as it has never been shown before.' In addition to Wilson and Dager, Stick's ensemble cast includes Marc Maron, Mariana Treviño, Lilli Kay, Judy Greer and Timothy Olyphant, and features guest appearances from golf superstars such as Collin Morikawa, Keegan Bradley, Max Homa, Wyndham Clark and more. Additional cameos include broadcasters Jim Nantz and Trevor Immelman, Good Good's Matt Scharff, Brad Dalke and Garrett Clark, as well as golf enthusiast Dan Rapaport. Will you be -ing around for Season 2? Grade Season 1 below (if you've seen it), then hit the comments with your thoughts. Best of TVLine 'Missing' Shows, Found! Get the Latest on Ahsoka, Monarch, P-Valley, Sugar, Anansi Boys and 25+ Others Yellowjackets Mysteries: An Up-to-Date List of the Series' Biggest Questions (and Answers?) The Emmys' Most Memorable Moments: Laughter, Tears, Historical Wins, 'The Big One' and More
