I guess this movie didn't aim to perfectly accurately portray the sport of bowling, but seriously, it could've done a lot better. I did like the school scenes, as they're totally on the spot. Students just don't see bowling as a sport anymore. After watching the bowling scenes, I'm thinking "no wonder competitive bowling gets so little acknowledgment! This movie is totally unrealistic!" Instead of giving in to demands from young people, they should be marketing bowling at its most professional level, to draw people in THAT direction, and not vice versa. That's the only way to make seriously bowlers, which will do a lot of good for this declining sport. If they had shown that bowling takes a lot of finesse and skill, and endurance and consistency, then maybe those schoolkids would accept it more from the beginning. Instead all it talks about is modernizing, and making it "fun". Putting laser lights and fog machines and loud music undermines the integrity of "real" bowling. I sure wouldn't go there!

In case all you trivia freaks are wondering, Mimi Paley's character does have a last name.Her name is Delia Graci!How do I know? Watch the bowling tournament scene. There's a banner with the names of all the West Appleton bowling team with first name initialed & full last name.And on that banner, it reads "D. Graci" along with "A. Thompson", "T. McLemore", etc.If I compare that foursome to the Scooby Doo gang, Delia would fit Velma perfectly.All in all, I liked the movie because I like to bowl & watch the PBA on ESPN.

SOME SPOILERS! This movie is about learning to understand--even accept--other peoples' point of view and working together for a common cause regardless of any remaining differences. As the movie progresses different examples of how to do this are shown, such as Alex going to a party by Todd's friends that he wouldn't normally attend, accompanying Todd to get decorations for the bowling hall, and getting a truce between his team members and Todd for the remaining days until the contest. Todd rallies his friends to revive the bowling hall. Alex and his friends learn to have a positive, winning attitude, and Todd learns about style and playing for fun without the pressure to win at all costs, and yielding to a better performer when it counts. One great example that might get overlooked occurs about twenty minutes from the beginning: in the bowling hall Todd mentions the rumour that Alex got his clothes in the alley behind the hall. Instead of getting mad, Alex handles this with humor, poking even more fun at himself, saying he got them from a <catalog> he found in the alley, and Todd's "Whatever..." shows he gets the humor, and the confrontation is defused, rather than escalating. Reality check: it's true that this only works if the accuser accepts the humor, but when it works you can feel the reduction in tension. As Dexter says in "The Cure" (ties for #1 with "On Golden Pond" in my list), "It's worth a try."

Good cast and heartwarming ideas about outcast teenage bowlers being called upon to win for the sake of their school and to prove they "belong".Spotty on plot. You mean to tell me that during the (presumably) weeks leading up to the basketball game that would tie the battle for the Mighty Apple, no one checked to see what would happen in case of a tie? Not even Sweet Lou, who lived and breathed Appleton sports? By the way, why all the stress on junior high school sports? They don't have a high school to care about?I can't imagine that my town, when growing up, would have cared much about a competition against the next town on the jr. high level. Still, it's for kids.