Really Surprised!

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

I feel privileged to have witnessed something this bad. It's like a milestone in my life. Having said that, I admit to only watching half of it. I just couldn't take the torture any longer, despite the spectacular scenery of the Texas Hill Country.This was Karate Kid on Valium. Robert Duvall rehashes his old guy Texas burnout with wisdom character from Tender Mercies and mixes it with a little Great Santini. Instead of teaching a kid karate through sweeping and polishing, he teaches an overgrown man-child to play Golf through fishing and painting.If Golf in the Texas countryside isn't obscure enough for you, a failed golfer leaves the PGA Tour and smashes into the ranch fence of a former PGA golfer in the middle of nowhere. What are the odds? Apparently it was a Christian movie. I didn't get that far.This lead "actor," from the Tokyo Fast and Furious film has the personality of a piece of driftwood. Top that off with the deepest Alabama accent you've ever heard or hope to hear. There just happens to be a nice single girl in town who thinks he's attractive. Even though there are only 375 people in the town. Must be his dazzling personality and the fact that he embarrassed himself on national T.V. getting blown off the golf course and exhibiting poor sportsmanship. Hmm. Yummy.The small town transforming a city guy theme is stolen from Doc Hollywood. (Michael J. Fox)The rest as I mentioned is from Karate Kid, only Mr. Miyagi is now a clichéd version of Robert Duvall.By the way, the kid is asked to paint a picture of the golf course and he does it like a pro. Does he have an artistic background? Did he take Fine Arts at Golf College? Oh jeez.What a disaster. Having said that, the scenery again is amazing and the basic idea of a man with a broken spirit chilling out in a small town is always appealing. So cull what you can from this train wreck. I'm sure it has its' redeeming qualities.

It's always a bad sign during a movie when I find myself thinking, "I should be doing something else with my time." Five minutes into the film and it was depressingly easy to guess what was going to happen next, and to even mouth dialog before it was said. Movies like this are like candy for the brain, which is spinning in neutral because there was no substantial story that wasn't easily predicable.I felt that it was a very shallow and predictable story; the comments about it being just like Pixar's "Cars" are correct. Way too formulaic.And finally there's the overly-strong religious message, with some reviews touting it as a great movie *because* of the message. Sorry, but using a work of fiction written by believers as proof of faith is called circular reasoning. Self-created "facts" don't make for good faith, or a good movie.

As an avid viewer of cinema, I decided to watch "Seven Days in Utopia" on Netflix. I thought it was boring in itself, but the message of "see, feel, trust" is really useful in life. Also, it was a slightly entertaining deja-vu of 'The Karate Kid" (from the 1980s) and "Cars". My biggest gripe about the movie was that it left everyone wondering if he made the putt, and the narrator saying it didn't matter. Also, the studio set up didhemaketheputt.com as if the movie was based on a true story.Overall, this movie was going to deserve a 7/10 for the valuable Christian message embedded in it, but got a 6/10 for the cheesy relationship between two of the main characters. If you like movies with Christian messages, such as "Letters to God" and "Fireproof", you will love this movie.

I'm reluctant to even call this a "movie". "Seven days in Utopia" (SDIU) is nothing more than the sanctimonious indulgence of the arrogantly enlightened. I'm only compelled to write this because I'm so irritated with all those that had a hand in sucking me in to watching this absolute useless mess and to hopefully discourage others from making the same mistake.With a "G" rating, I did expect a "warm, fuzzy", family sort of film. I've enjoyed movies like "The Greatest game Ever Played" and "The Rookie" but they were able to convey a magical or even spiritual connection to the "game" (whatever game that may be) without hitting it's audience over the head with their own personal religious choice and an obvious agenda. Something about these other movies can be inspirational without pointing to a specific religion. Almost anyone can identify with the power of positive thought. The concept of "believe in yourself and good things will happen" can be applied to most anyone. The concept of "believe in MY GOD and good things will happen" is arrogant, short-sighted, narrow minded and wreaks of intolerance. To those that like this "movie", well, you are simply the Choir being preached to.Now I might be able to overlook all of the obvious religious content if SDIU was well researched and executed from a golf stand point but not only is the audience being sold "God" in this effort, you're also asked to sit through a sales pitch for "The Golf Channel", "Callaway Golf" and most ridiculously of all, a "Face On Putter".Before I touch on those points I'll issue the obligatory "Spoiler Alert".In the interest of time, I won't elaborate on each awkward point. There are so many! However there are two that just have to be called out. For one, the "Face-On" putter which the main character uses for the final putt in the final scene. Truly absurd and conspicuously contrived. The concept could only be an obviously contrived premise to market this putter. Either that or this is the writers chosen method of putting and he chose this forum to preach to you about his putter while preaching to you about his God. At some point in the movie Robert Duvall's character tries to make a point to the main character about "knowing why you do everything". The point being that when someone questions this during a game you won't get flustered and have them "get into your head". In other words, stay true to your own convictions no matter what others might say. I actually like this thought and think it could be a good lesson for all. If that is what Mr. Cook was going for, I could almost buy it. However, why would any touring pro use a standard putter for 71 holes of a four day tournament and pull out the strange "Face-On" putter for the last putt of the last hole? A putt for the "win" no less? His traditional putter clearly played a big role in putting him in that position in the first place! If the lesson here is about "conviction" than why wasn't he using the "Face-On" putter for the whole tournament? You know this is coming too! You can see the long putter sticking out of the golf bag in scenes leading up to the last. Additionally, to try and claim that this putter is a better way of putting has no basis or support. For what it's worth, I'm an avid golfer with a current handicap of 8 (have been as low as a 5 in past years). I enjoy watching all Pro Golf Tours on TV. PGA, LPGA and The Champions Tour. No-one on those tours that I'm aware of is using this type of putter or putting style. The late, great, Sam Snead used this type of putter but he died in 2002 at the age of 89. To each, his own as they say but if it truly was a better method more pros would be using it. They are not and it really is that simple. Neither is anyone I know or have seen in twenty years. What was SDIU, really? A movie or a "Face-On" putter infomercial? Maybe the sequel will tell!Now last and definitely the worst is the ending or more accurately, the lack of an ending. You don't see if the putt goes in for the "win". The "movie" ends there with a black screen and the URL "didhemaketheputt.com". Curiosity got the best of my wife and she had to check. Sure enough the URL leads you to a continuing sermon from David Cook and a spiritually, self-promoting message to look for his sequel.Don't bother with "Seven Days in Utopia"! Don't bother with the link! Certainly don't bother with the sequel! Shame on everyone that played a role in sucking us in and ripping us off: Of course David Cook, the other writers and director of SDIU. All actors and KJ Choi! Shame on you too! We now will question anything you're part of in the future. Comcast, for making this available on "On-Demand" without a proper description or preview that could have warned us about the religious agenda. The Golf Channel, for supporting such a blatant evangelical effort. It will be hard for me to take any of you seriously moving forward. And Callaway Golf for the same reasons. I'll never buy another item with the Callaway logo on it. Not a club, not a ball and certainly not a hat, the primary vessel of your nauseatingly glaring product placements.Much of the "Religious, Right" may sing it's praises but I would even warn some of you to avoid this work. If you are a Christian, you may agree with some of the content but this is still a really, really bad movie!