I put off watching this movie for a long time. I'm not sure what I had against it; I guess I assumed it was just some raunchy piece of trash. Well, I decided that was what I was in the mood for, so I gave it a chance. I don't understand how anyone can find this funny. It's mind boggling to me that this is a Farrelly brothers movie it's so tame. People write about it being crude and outrageous, but it was actually one of the most boring movies I've seen in a long time. It's not even edited like a comedy--something feels off the entire running time. Sometimes I'm put off by a movie when it turns out to be something other than what I expected. In this case, it wasn't that my expectations were too high, it was just that I was watching one of the lamest, least entertaining comedies ever put to film.

Peter Farrelly and Bobby Farrelly made their names in crude comedies that pushed the envelope. In Kingpin they display more of their trademark zaniness and crudeness that they showed in Dumb and Dumber Woody Harrelson plays tenpin bowler named Roy Munson, a potential champion who ended up losing his bowling hand after being tricked by a fellow bowler (Bill Murray).Many years later living a deadbeat life where he does not have enough money to pay the rent. He meets a devout Amish man called Ishmael (Randy Quaid) who he sees as a potential champion and gets him to leave his community and head to Reno to take part in a championship where he meets up again with Bill Murray, now a sleazy bowling superstar with a bad comb-over.The film has plenty of crude humour with Harrelson getting into mishaps with his fake hand and hook. There is low brow humour such as milking a bull believing it to be a cow. Murray pops back at the end with hair that has a life of its own.The film starts off brightly, its refreshingly silly and funny. However it loses its absurdity once they hook up with Claudia (Vanessa Angel) and tries to add depth to the characters. It loses its spontaneity and only becomes sporadically amusing.

This often-amusing piece of trash begins with a scene out of Paul Newman's "The Hustler." Bill Murray sees the latent bowling talent in Woody Harrelson, cultivates it, and they set out hustling small-town rubes. Harrelson pretends to be drunk and is faced with an impossible frame. Everyone bets against him and when he makes the spare, he and Murray split the money. That is, until finally some clot of rubes wakes up to the scam and grinds Harrelson's bowling hand off, while Murray cheerfully speeds off alone.A tragic tale. Harrelson is a real down-and-outer in Baltimore, forced to service his landlady in lieu of the rent. She has a face like Euryale the gorgon and he vomits voluminously after the bout.Then he gets a lucky break. He spots a young man, Randy Quaid, from a neighboring Amish town who has the same talented touch with a bowling ball, and persuades him to take to the road. They hustle their way to the million-dollar championship bowl off in Reno, Nevada, picking up some enemies along the way, not to mention Vanessa Angel. The two final contestants are Harrelson, bowling with his hook instead of his hand, and the egomaniacal Murray.I didn't think it was as inventive as "There's Something About Mary". There is no equivalent of Ben Stiller's arrest at the roadside tea room. Yet it is funny and it gets funnier as it meanders along. Some of the gags are silly and pointless -- the burly Quaid dressed in tights and doing a pole dance. But there's wit in some of the visual gags -- Harrelson bending over a cute baby, making goo goo sounds, and chucking it under the chin with his hook while the mother's eyes bulge with anxiety.And the dialog has its moments too. "You know, you're not the most intelligent person on earth." "Oh, yeah, and who are you, Alfred Einstein?" Then there are the performances, uniformly professional. We'll begin with Vanessa Angel. Yes, let's begin with her. The English-born actress has a mellifluous voice, a little throaty, and is strikingly attractive, a paragon of pulchritude. Oh, yum.Quaid is a large, clumsy actor but his role rather suits him -- the stolid, God-fearing, son of the soil, who takes his first automobile ride and shortly afterwards is taking hits from a long blue bong.Harrelson doesn't exactly have an actor's elocution. He has a weak voice and usually sounds as if he's reading his lines from some off-screen cue card. But he excels at light comedy, especially when the comedy has a slightly deranged quality, as it does here.Murray plays it straight at first but the final confrontation in Reno gives him a chance to unwind. He is absolutely hilarious, seen on television in a parody of one of those ad miseracordiam commercials for "Unified Way". "Little Charlotte here has never eaten a hot dog in her life. She lives in poverty and depends on your donations to keep her alive." Meanwhile, Murray is copping feels from the local mothers and daughters. I laughed out loud when Murray wept with joy at the prospect of beating Harrelson at the championship bowl off.I'm glad we see a little bit of what looks like Reno too. Reno is a pleasant, laid back little city. I've spent many cozy nights there at the elegant Mapes Hotel, sleeping in the lobby.

I've only recently decided to somewhat commit to participating in contributing reviews to IMDb and reality hit me in the face when realising that it was 17 years ago when this classic came out. 17 years, and boy do i miss these kind of films, When the Farrelly brothers made great comedy movies. Of course they have taken their feet of the pedals, but their first 4 were instant classics.It may not be a laugh out loud film that has you giggling all the way through, but it has a certain charm to it (despite the crudeness) that keeps you smiling throughout. There are plenty of hilarious moments and great one liners. Bill Murray is fantastic as Big Ern and gels brilliantly with Woody Harrelson. The rest of the cast play their parts to make this a must see film.