The Farrelly Brothers score a definate strike with Kingpin, their best movie to date.

When Ten-Pin Bowling prodigy Roy Munson (Woody Harrelson) wins the 1979 Odour-Eaters Championship the future looks bright indeed. But after an ecounter with double-crossing fellow player 'Big Ernie' McCracken (a stupendously slimy Bill Murray complete with pastel suits and a nasty perm), Munson is left (rather horribly) without his profitible bowling hand or a future.

Cut to 17 years later and Munson is a complete slob with no dignity and a dead-end job selling bowling accessories and flourescent condoms (apparently "fun even when you're alone"). Sporting a degrading comb-over, flabby belly and ridiculous prosthetic hand, he is reduced to providing sexual favours for his literally vomit-inducing landlady (Lin Shaye) in exchange for his room.
It's at rock bottom (he can't stoop any lower folks) that Munson meets Ishmael Boorg (Randy Quaid with a blonde bob), an Amish boy with raw bowling talent and disarming naivety. After much persuasion (involving Munson pretending to be Amish) Ishmael eventually lets Munson be his coach and with runaway beauty Claudia (eye-candy Vanessa Angel) in tow, they head to Reno, a million dollar tournament and an apocalyptic showdown with Big Ern (Murray, now complete with rayon suits and a comb-over to rival Harrelson's).

The Farrelly's have described Kingpin as 'Dumb & Dumber with a plot' and to an extent they’re right; whilst Kingpin shamelessly embraces the same broad, dumb, banana-skin comedy as Dumb & Dumber, it does add a specific, engaging goal for its wayward protagonists. The bowling tournament is calling.....all the way to Reno (you're gonna be a star).
But what truly sets it apart is the surprisingly poignant themes of sadness and regret that are largely untouched upon by any of the other movies in the Farrelly canon.
Munson had it all but threw it away in a mad moment of greed. Today he's all deep sighs and visions of the past, drowned in countless bottles of whiskey. "I don't puke when I drink" he muses regretfully "I puke when I don't".
His name has literally become synonymous with failure ("you got Munsoned!") and he didn't even have the nerve to return home for his loving father's funeral.
It ain't Shakespere but Kingpin is about what its like to be a loser and it isn’t pretty.

Bearing all this in mind, what's equally surprising is that Kingpin is also the Farrelly Brother's sickest, most consistently funny comedy yet; we have graphic images of Munson's post-coital vomiting session after sex with his gross landlady and later he even drinks Bull's semen (after mistakenly thinking he had been milking a cow he proclaims "took me a while to get her warmed up! She sure is a stubborn one!").
Harrelson is superb as Munson; coming on like a harsher version of Homer Simpson, he spills hot coffee on toddlers, saws the feet off a cart horse and spends most of the movie with his fly open. A lot of gags are made at the expense of his rubber hand which comes into contact with sharp nails, fierce dogs and breasts amongst other things.
He also gets some wickedly pithy dialogue, most of which is aimed at the curvaceous sexbomb Angel; "most of the dresses you have you need two haircuts to wear" he remarks.

Vanessa Angel is gorgeous as Claudia and she gives as good as she gets; her and Harrelson have a hilarious comedy fist-fight which she begins by booting him firmly in the bollocks ("you must have a wide foot" he grimaces "you got both of them"). She is also quite useful at putting off opponents with her scantily clad body and a great deal of the jokes are aimed at her ample bosom (a fridge-freezer exposing her hardened nipples, Harrelson literally using her breasts as punch-bags during their fight scene).

Randy Quaid is his usual reliable self and there's much fun to be had in the progressive corruption of his innocent Amish character; before you know it he's encountering booze, cigarettes, drugs and (hilariously) tattoos.

Bill Murray very nearly steals the show as strutting poseur 'Big Ernie' McCracken; decked out in garish clothing and bowling gear, he is pure perverted smarm. He only has a few scenes but they are all priceless, especially his tasteless TV ad for sponsoring fatherless children (who all have suspiciously Playmate mothers; "I had to get involved, I couldn't help myself" he says holding the hips of a mini-skirted mum).

Smaller roles are equally effective, with Lin Shaye stomach churningly rank as Harrelson's yellow-toothed, varicose-veined landlady and Chris Elliot terrific in a magnificent lampoon on Indecent Proposal (He's Redford, Quaid is Moore and Harrelson is.....Harrelson).

There are minor quibbles, such as the running time which is a tad excessive (some scenes still seem short and cut) and some audiences are likely to avert their innocent eyes during the nastier moments (and there are many).

But this is too good-naturedly dumb to fail and if things do get a little silly the excellent cast ably pull everything back into check. There is a sobering sense of sadness running through the movie (but this is no bad thing) and if the ending seems harsh, it only serves to strengthen the underlying concept that failure is often inevitable. So overall Kingpin is well worth re-visitng; a film that finds dignity in the undignified and touching profundity amongst the lowest of the low.









Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good Date Movie
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12