Kevin Costner's -- `Tin Cup' -- Golf's The Game In This Charming Sports Comedy

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XXX "Tin Cup," with Kevin Costner, Rene Russo, Don Johnson, Cheech Marin. Directed by Ron Shelton, from a script by Shelton and John Norville. Broadway Market, Crossroads, Everett 9, Factoria, Grand Cinemas Alderwood, Issaquah 9, Metro, Mountlake 9, Oak Tree, Puyallup 6, Renton Village, SeaTac North. "R" - Restricted because of language, brief nudity. -----------------------------------------------------------------

Following their well-publicized trials with "Waterworld" and "Cobb," Kevin Costner and writer-director Ron Shelton have returned to what they once did best: sports comedy.

"Tin Cup" has much in common with their 1988 hit, "Bull Durham." Both stories focus on a gifted, undisciplined player and a seasoned professional who take turns wooing the same articulate, analytical, sports-obsessed female.

However, this time the sport is golf, not the more photogenic baseball, and the running time is an epic-length 135 minutes, not a tidy 108. Costner switches roles, essentially playing the wild card, not the old pro from "Bull Durham." Like Costner's character, Shelton goes for broke, hoping he'll be able to juggle all these less-than-promising elements and come up with a winner.

He almost manages it, thanks to the terrific comic chemistry between Costner and Cheech Marin, who plays Sancho Panza to Costner's quixotic would-be champion. As the movie opens, Costner is nearly broke, a once-promising player trying to make a living on a West Texas driving range; Marin is his caddy, buddy and Winnebago roommate. Together they attempt to put Costner's professional life back on track, heading for the pro-golf crown, the U.S. Open.

When they have a falling out, littering the golf course with broken clubs and ugly threats, there's far more at stake than when Costner is trying to win a golf-loving psychotherapist (Rene Russo) from his chief professional rival (Don Johnson). When Costner and Marin make up, searching for the words that will allow them to continue their partnership and friendship, there's real tenderness and regret in the air.

Alas, Russo is no Susan Sarandon, and Johnson is no Tim Robbins, nor are their parts as well-written as Costner's and Marin's. They rarely suggest characters with three dimensions, and that's a problem with a movie that runs this long.

While Russo has been effective in supporting parts ("Get Shorty," "In the Line of Fire"), and she handles the verbal sparring matches with Costner with some skill, she doesn't relax into the co-starring role as Sarandon did. She can't make the character seem much more than a male athlete's fantasy.

Johnson does nothing unexpected in the role of a smug golf pro, but then the script never makes him look like anything but a jerk. Not for a moment do we believe that Russo's smart shrink will stay with him once she spots Costner.

"I'm twice as sensitive as he is!" Costner points out, all too accurately. Shelton wrote "Bull Durham" by himself, but he shares scripting credit here with a golfing partner, John Norville, and the result is neither as tight nor as original.

Yet for every scene that doesn't click, "Tin Cup" delivers two or three that do. Against all odds, Shelton succeeds in generating tension on the golf course and exploiting it for spectacle, while affectionately spoofing sports reporters as well as the occasional hanger-on (Linda Hart does her goofy, scene-stealing best with the out-of-left-field role of Costner's ex-girlfriend). And the Costner/Marin teamwork carries it to the finish.