J Michael Moncrief

Isn't it ironic that Robert Redford, the Sundance sugar daddy of independent film, seems to have become incapable of directing a movie that isn't utterly conventional, soft-focused Hollywood melodrama?

Granted, he's good at it. There's a certain beauty and poetry to films like "A River Runs Through It," "The Horse Whisperer" and his new golf-as-philosophy fable "The Legend of Bagger Vance," but it's a Hallmark card kind of beauty and poetry, printed on flimsy paperboard and worth $2.50 at most.

The title character of "Bagger Vance" -- a folksy, Southern, porch swing spirit guide played by Will Smith -- even speaks a lot like a Hallmark card.

Continue reading: The Legend Of Bagger Vance Review