The Tiger Woods Story (1998 TV Movie) User Reviews

Enjoyable For All The Wrong Reasons

[Theo Robertson · 4/10 · 9 April 2004]

I heard that Tiger Woods got his name after his father`s life was saved by a comrade in `Nam . This led to visions of the heroic cliche of someone running onto the battlefield slinging a wounded buddy over their shoulder and dashing hundreds of metres dodging machine gun fire and exploding shells. According to this biopic Col Earl Woods were sitting in a living room disguised as the jungles of South East Asia where a snake popped into view . It wasn`t just any type of snake , no siree , it was one of those ones you use as a draught excluder . Thankfully someone saves Earl`s life by shooting the head off the draft excluder thereby meaning we have a story to tell . In the next scene we`re shown a general taking Earl into his office gives him a cigar and we`re treated to some top class dialogue

" Hey Colonel you`ve done a couple of tours in country . It`s about time we got you behind a desk "

" No thanks sir , I`m an infantryman at heart "

Not even John Wayne could have come out with such modesty and considering Earl spent the opening sequence dressed in a green beret uniform you have to consider why he considers himself a mere infantryman ? In fact you have to consider if the screenwriters knowledge of Vietnam extends beyond watching THE GREEN BERETS over and over again

As you may have noticed no one who has commentated on this movie actually thinks much of it as a bio-pic and some people don`t think much of it as entertainment either but I disagree with the second point , it is entertaining but not the way the producers envisaged . I mean we`re not shown any scenes of Tiger throwing tantrums where specatators cough at the wrong moment or a photo journalist gets into Tigers line of view . We`re not shown any of Tiger`s obvious prima donna attitude or the fact when he looses another tournament it`s always someone elses fault . Watching this bio-pic on the Tiger is like watching the " Springtime For Hitler " sequences from THE PRODUCERS thinking it`s a documentary on the second world war

Good Lifetime-type movie

[Loquacious_to_a_fault · 5/10 · 13 April 2023]

I don't know what other reviewers are talking about? This movie is good. It's on the level of a Lifetime-type movie of its day in time. Are people comparing this to a blockbuster type movie?... because it was not that bad.

At any rate, the acting was good and moved along pretty quickly. Everyone held their own, from the kid who played Tiger to him as a 21 year old.

Now, if Nextflix, Hulu, HBOMax or AppleTv (or something like that) made this movie, in this current and age-I'm sure it would be better and probably done in an episodic format up to current day Tiger.

Obviously, watch it yourself and judge for yourself. Definitely good watch for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Oh deary me!

[tocker · 15 April 2002]

What a film!! I couldn't turn it off, I did try but it was a lost cause. Just how bad actually is this film?

It was rolling along nicely at "bad film" status until the story reached the Augusta Masters. Needless to say the status dive bombed to become one of the worst films I have ever watched. Terrible acting, terrible action shots, Terrible looking golf course??? but the main star of the show wasn't Tiger Woods .. it was Colin Montgomerie!! What a performance ... what a likeness?!? and what an accent?!? I want to know this actors name, he is my new hero.

This film is so bad that It comes with my "must see" plea. Everyone, no matter the cost, needs to get their hands on this film. It is superb entertainment.

How did Tiger ever make it???

[Arthur21743 · 1/10 · 28 March 2002]

I can't help myself, I have GOT to talk about this movie!!!! I have to refer to some of the antics of his mother, so if you haven't seen it yet, I need to warn you that I mean to talk specifics, so don't read on. Watch the movie and then if your stomach is churning like mine is, come read this later and see if you agree.

First of all, there is Tiger's dad who was a marine and met Tiger's mother in Thailand and brought her over here and got her naturalized. They had a baby (Tiger).

Dad has a love of golf and sees that his son has inherited that trait. Why, at the age of three, Tiger beats the resident pro at a snazzy golf club by two strokes (I think) with a plastic(?) club so the little black kid won't be kicked out.

Dear old mom glares at Earl every time he gets serious about motivating Tiger at the game that Tiger already is a natural at, shakes her finger at him, withers him with a glance, and otherwise wears the pants. I got to wondering if this pap wasn't written by a member of the National Organization of Man-Hating Dykes and if the producer and director were both wussies.

Then Tiger meets up with racism at school and mom's solution is to take him back to Thailand. Boy would he ever get to be a golf great over there! Good thinking, mom. Run away from adversity. Works every time. All the world's greats found success like that....

Then when I was registering here so I could write this, there comes this scene where mother is looking into Tiger's eyes and telling him that he needs to commit to golf body, soul, and kit and caboodle. Her eyes looked clear and focused for a change. Or maybe it is because she seems to always hide them in real life behind sun glasses. Anyway, how did Tiger make it with all this schizophrenia in his upbringing (assuming this is the REAL Tiger Woods story and not just a "based on" version).

I was taping this for my son, who looks up to Tiger as his inspiration and when he was younger even used to have a swing that mirrored Tiger's.

I will erase it now though.

Too much negativism for him to overcome. He has enough problems already.

Utterly awful

[grizzlycb · 1/10 · 11 April 2005]

I thought this film was worse than Plan 9 from Outer Space. Similarly to Edward Wood, the director will be very famous in the future, I am very confident of that.

I could learn to love this film if I thought it were a parody - but it isn't. Tragically.

Sets are woefully inadequate, acting with more wood than Tiger himself, comic bit-parts, abysmal script.... there is nothing redeeming except the undoubtedly gripping story, and the good resemblance of Tiger's screen mother to his real mum. Colin Montgomerie on the other hand...

Ooh, but the score covering the closing credits is highly entertaining!

wow...

[markles · 1/10 · 2 August 1999]

What a piece of poorly acted crap. Pure Tiger Woods propaganda. I accidentally caught this 'film' during some channel surfing and it was so mesmerizingly bad I couldn't manage to manipulate the remote control. Reminiscent of the Senor Spielbergo directed Monty Burns epic in the Springfield Film Festival, an actual football to the groin(not just watching it happen to someone else) may be better than watching this 'movie.' A must see for anyone intrigued by poor cinema, "The Tiger Woods Story" will certainly turn your stomach.

How bad this made for TV movie is.

[smokeyrodgers · 1/10 · 14 March 2006]

This is a clear example of people with more money than sense, mistaking themselves as artists and trying to feed off the talent of others. A movie about Tiger Woods' life up until that point, all 23 years of it, is not that entertaining. As a viewer you are not treated to anything more than could be summed up in...oh, i don't know...a 30 second Nike commercial.

Particular bad points include the far from accurate portrayal of Colin Montgomerie with a broad Scottish accent. (just because he's Scottish)

The responsibility must fall to the director to do his research or to just forget about this project for at least another 20 years.

How Does My Dictate?

[JEC64 · 1/10 · 7 March 2000]

Wow!!!! this was the all time lowest film every made. A must see for those who are absolutely shocked with terrible cinema. My friend and I watched this one in amazement wondering where it came from. There was a funny line though........."How does my dictate" Tiger.......How did you let this get made?

GENIUS

[publius123-2 · 10/10 · 23 October 2000]

An fine story of the human spirit, and what it can accomplish in the glaring eyes of adversity. With a combination of tremendous acting, and an intricate plot, this movie is impossible to overlook for even the most devout detester of golf and anything that has to do with it. The Tiger Woods story not only inspired me to play golf, it has also inspired to teach my child golf in the hopes that he too might one day be able to play like the movie's namesake. Unfortunately, my praise could never do justice to the brilliance that this film constantly projects. I recommend it with my highest regard

An entertaining, warm story

[qbj12 · 27 October 1999]

I thought this film was alot better than I thought it was going to be. The film was really engaging and the story of this family and what it went through was rather inspiring. Keith David was excellent as Earl Woods and the woman who played his wife was also quite good. >

Anyway, two thumbs up from me.

He hits a ball with a stick

[abarsby · 14 April 2002]

I had to laugh at "Markles" who said this was directed by Senor Spielbergo from THAT Simpson's episode, because he's SO right.

It was so bad that it kept me transfixed to the small screen in disbelief.

I marvelled as a clearly embarrassed Keith David had to spout lines describing golf as some sort of quasi-mystical Zen-like art. Tiger is portrayed as some sort of crusading Black-Asian Superman fighting against ignorance and intolerance for the rights of all people of colour to play this pointless game.

And then I felt sick when oh so poor nice middle-class boy Tiger was given 100 million dollars in sponsorship money !

I mean, 100 MILLION dollars for hitting a ball with a stick !!!!!! An indictment of today's society if ever there was one, when ONE man can amass so much for doing so little. 100 million for the person who discovers the cure for Cancer, for the starving African children, for the doctors, the surgeons, the firemen and police officers - yes. But NOT for a guy who hits a ball with a stick !

Senor Spielbergo, we salute you !

Casting fiasco

[leew-5 · 16 August 2000]

As a Tiger Woods fan (with a morbid fondness for campy made-for-TV biopics) I made it a point to catch this one on Fox Family channel. While watching (during the many boring, repetitious or mawkish bits) I was reading a profile of the real Tiger in the current New Yorker magazine. But that only accentuated the film's faults. The first half or more was actually not as bad as it could have been. The acting, particularly by Keith David and Freda Foh Shen as Earl and Tida, was quite competent, and care seemed to have been taken to portray accurately the discovery and development of the child Tiger's remarkable talents. The boy playing Tiger up to age 13, Gary Le Roi Gray, bore a remarkable resemblance to Tiger and got all the moves right.

The film fell apart, however, as soon as Khalil Kain came on the scene as the older Tiger, starting with his time at Stanford. The actor now bore absolutely no resemblance to Tiger Woods as we know him: his looks, his build, his demeanor, his attitude, his speech -- all were totally lacking in even the remotest resemblance to one of the best known people in America today. What could the casting people have been thinking? You could stand on a street corner in any American city and within a few minutes find someone who looks and acts more like Tiger Woods than this guy. (The scenes at Stanford were also almost unwatchable, looking like outtakes from the tackiest TV high school drama.) This lack of verisimilitude was all the more jarring given what had gone on in the dutiful and well-intentioned first half of the film. Quite frankly, at this point, I switched off. I wasn't up for the doubtless sappy, soppy ending anyway, and I really could not bear to look at the impostor playing Tiger -- a callow, wimpy, whiny, pale unsmiling youth, posing as a tall, handsome, strongly built and profoundly athletic man with a world-famous toothy smile (and, yeah, okay, a bit of a puffed-up personality) whom everyone in the world recognizes. In the end (or at least at the point where I bailed out) this film was an embarrassment.

worst actor in history discovered

[mcfly-31 · 28 December 2001]

I usually don't review tv movies because they usually aren't worthwhile. This film is no exception, but I had to throw in my two cents because of maybe the worst actor I've ever seen. Unfortunately, for Showtime (the makers of the film), it wasn't a supporting actor, but their lead. Khalil Kain, the guy who plays Tiger, is abysmal. Stiff line readings, emotionless, totally unlikable. Hardly bore resemblance as well. These aspects just cause the viewer to be distracted by making comments to others in the room (or to themselves) about how lousy the casting director is. As far as the film, it's by the numbers familiararity, and ends just when Woods was getting rolling in life! One of those flicks you recommend to people because it's so entertaining on a bad level.