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Kingpin | Classification: Comedy Actors/Actresses: - Woody Harrelson - Randy Quaid - Bill Murray Not just a gross out film! Normally, I don't read other reviews before formulating my own. I still usually check the editorial one so that I'm not just repeating information that's already been given. Here we do somewhat disagree, on the bowling comedy Kingpin. There are some gross out scenes in the movie, some are done so well you can't help, but laugh yourself silly. The Farley's have a knack of knowing how to turn a visual joke. In their later movie, "Something About Mary", everyone remembers the hair gel bit. Ben Stillers' character knows what the gel is, and so does the audience, so although somewhat gross, it's funny. Here they keep the audience in the dark till the last second, as Woodys' character Roy Munson walks up, drinking from a bucket of apparently, fresh milk. Then they hit us that the Amish family doesn't have a milk cow, but they do have a bull! What didn't appear gross on the surface, is suddenly revealed, and just had me rolling. Then there's the bowling story, derived "like the editorial guy said", from the sequel film, "The Color of Money", but also many elements taken from the much earlier film, "The Hustler". In "The Hustler", Fast Eddie, gets his thumbs broken when he's caught hustling pool at a seedy bar. In Kingpin, Roy Munson gets a similar treatment, and loses a hand. From this tragic, and depressing turn, the Farley brothers manage to maintain the humor, especially with the plot device, of how he got set-up by his then partner (played by Bill Murray). Somehow the term, "Munsoned", derived from Roys' misfortune, becomes part of the language, and means to get "royally shafted". Everywhere Roy goes, people he's never met keep using the term to describe some poor schlep, having a turn of really bad luck. For a while after this film was out, I even heard the term used the way it was in the movie. When I was much younger, and CATV did not have 300 channels, professional bowling was a popular broadcast on Saturday mornings. Like wrestling, roller derby, and putt putt golf, most of us laymen could relate to a real blue collar sport. I think the Farleys' did a good job capturing the feel of the sport in the contests they displayed. Bill Murray did a great job playing a popular bowling icon. He brought just the right amount of tackiness, and blue collar showmanship to the role. I think they borrowed a bit of this from pro wrestling, since it's a bit showier than a bowling match. The romance in the movie actually manages to play real, and gives the movie somewhat of a plot. That's a difficult thing to accomplish in a film this crazy. Roy is a character hard not to like, even with all his flaws. Those flaws being clearly on display in scenes, where he tries to pretend to be a fellow Amish man. His antics create some confusion over whether the term is, "barn raising," or "barn razing"! If nothing else the film gives new meaning to the concept of, "getting behind in the rent"! Comedy with a heart. While some may instantly confine this movie to the wastebasket considering it to be another dumb gross-out movie you will be pleasantly surprised to learn that this movie has more to it than meets the eye. First of all the dialogue has so many memorable lines that you'll be reciting them for years to come. The plot (yes there is one) rightfully considers itself to be a human drama where flawed and sometimes obnoxious characters rise up to their own expectations of themselves. The acting is superb with perfect performances from Woody Harrelson, Randy Quaid and without a doubt, in his greatest ever role, Bill Murray as Ernie "Big Ern" MacCracken. If there has ever been a character more outrageously narcissistic as he is...I've yet to see him. The films 117 minutes running time proves that "Kinpin" does have plot and character development as well as the punchlines. See this movie when you get the chance The DVD is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen with Dolby 5.1 sound. My only complaint is of the absence of deleted scenes the Farelly brother's speak of in their commentary. KINGPIN As ``Kingpin'' opens in 1969 in Ocelot, Iowa, a promising young man is told, ``You can apply everything about bowling to your daily life.'' Only 10 years later, that young man is the winner of the $1,000 Odor-Eaters Bowling Championship. His name is Roy Munson (Woody Harrelson), and his future lies ahead of him, as indeed everyone's does. Then he meets Ernie McCracken (Bill Murray). McCracken is everything Munson will never be, a cocky, wise-cracking bowler who seems mighty sophisticated to a kid from Ocelot, as he calls for his favorite drink (``Tanqueray and Tab''). Ernie spots Roy's great potential, and uses him in an attempt to hustle an alley full of very tough bowlers. They spot Roy as a ringer, are enraged, and end his bowling career by amputating his hand in the ball return. So begins a long, dark decade for Roy, who without his bowling hand finds nothing to do but drink himself into oblivion in a scummy boarding house. He fits his arm with a hook, and buys a cheap rubber hand to wear over it, to display his state championship ring. Life is bad. Then one day in an alley he meets a kid with tremendous bowling talent. So begins the odyssey of ``Kingpin,'' a very funny movie, and sometimes even funnier than that. The film has been directed by the Farrelly brothers, Peter and Bobby, who also made the Jim Carrey movie ``Dumb and Dumber.'' I did not quite recommend ``D The leads come together with the joy and assurance of actors who know they are in material that's working. Harrelson is a hapless drunk who finally bottoms out when he finds himself in bed with his unspeakable landlady. Murray is superb as the kind of guy you know is a con man, but allow to con you anyway, simply because he so intensely desires to. Randy Quaid is the talented kid, Ishmael--an Amish farmer whose hobby is a secret from his family. And there is a beautiful girl they meet along the way, named Claudia and played by Vanessa Angel, who at first seems like decoration and then proves herself as a comic actress able to hold her own in this company. I could steal all the movie's best punch lines and repeat them here, but that would be unfair. One of the joys of the film is that you can't see a lot of the laughs coming. There are moments, for example, involving Roy's attempt to help out on the farm by doing the milking. And a moment involving his rubber hand and a bowling ball. And the timi Buy Kingpin at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on Kingpin Search with the Priority Search Engine on Kingpin This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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