MOVIE REVIEW

A young working-class golfer challenges British champ Henry Vardon for the 1913 U.S. Open championship.

By Kevin Crust, Times Staff Writer

The latest and least effective of Disney's inspirational sports movies, "The Greatest Game Ever Played" tells the strikingly similar tales of British golfing great Harry Vardon (Stephen Dillane) and upstart 20-year-old American amateur Francis Ouimet (Shia LaBeouf) and their meeting at the 1913 U.S. Open in Brookline, Mass. "Remember the Titans," "The Rookie" and "Miracle" all projected a level of respect for the sports they portrayed (football, baseball and hockey, respectively), but "Greatest Game" double bogeys, making last year's rather staid golf drama "Bobby Jones — Stroke of Genius" seem like a winner by comparison.

Director Bill Paxton, working from Mark Frost's adaptation of his own book, spins an old-fashioned tale as Vardon and Ouimet battle aristocratic twits in their struggle to break down the barriers of class to play the game they love.

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Dillane and LaBeouf are fine, but they're surrounded by such underwritten stereotypes as Ouimet's disapproving father (Elias Koteas) and the pretty little rich girl (Peyton List) who gives him the time of day despite her family's objections. Paxton and Frost lay the schmaltz on thickly, but the deal-breaker is the overuse of special effects, which make the game in question look more like pinball than golf.

Josh Flitter, as Ouimet's cherubic, 10-year-old caddy, steals his scenes, spouting such lyrical, can-do axioms as "Read it. Roll it. Hole it" and "Easy peasy, lemon squeezy."

"The Greatest Game Ever Played," PG for some brief mild language. Running time: 2 hours. In general release.