Review of Kingpin (1996) by Dawdlingpoet — 25 Nov 2021

The one main word to describe this movie that came to my mind is/was farcical. The movie is a Farrelly brothers movie, which would explain it, as I believe their movies are known for being somewhat farcical.

The humour reminded me of the sort of humour seen in movies such as the Scary Movie, uh, movies (lol), so its not for everyone, I wouldn't say its all 'gross out' humour but there is a bit of that, like with Roy's landlady being portrayed as this rather ugly 'old hag' type figure with bad teeth and horrible long greasy hair etc. at times Roy has flashbacks where he thinks he sees her and its a rather unpleasant vision, put it that way!

The names of the characters themselves are rather comical too, I thought, with Ernie McCracken and Ishmael Boorg both being, I guess you could say interesting names and I suppose in a way that just adds to the rather surreal feel of the movie. Its funny to see how Roy tries to pass himself off as a member of the Amish community, where he clearly is a fish out of water and when others from Ishmaels 'brotherhood' or otherwise his 'elders' ask for Roy to carry out some work, its amusing to see how badly or wrong he carries out the task and the response given by others. I quite liked that the movie wasn't a run of the mill sports comedy but that it incorporated a few things, including the amish community side of things and also that it wasn't a movie about a sport thats often covered in movies, I can't think of many movies about bowling, compared to lets say basketball and football, or American football. Woody Harrelson I thought did a good job portraying the character of Roy Munson, a quirky guy who clearly feels pretty down trodden and at the start, its clear that the years haven't been too kind on him, although he dresses a bit more snappily after he spots his prodigy in Ishmael. The start of the movie is quite amusing, seeing him back in 1979 in his 'hey day' as the contender for the 'Odor Eeaters' state bowling champion. Bill Murray also gave another good performance, playing Roys egotistical, show-off oponent. I believe he ad-libbed alot of the dialogue/lines and it is quite amusing, especially what he says at the start of the movie in 1979, as Roy lines up for the final shot, or bowl. He's as sharp witted as ever in this movie.

Randy Quaid and Vanessa Angel also give decent performances in their roles. I felt that Randy's character, Ishmael (although he is referred to mostly as just 'Ish' during the movie), was portrayed in quite an exaggerated way, in a sense. There is definitely a comical and surreal feel to the movie in general and 'Ish' appears as a particularly naive person, outside of his amish community.

Although the movie is somewhat crude and farcical, comedy wise, there is, I suppose, a slightly more serious side to it, with Ishmael knowing that if he were to win the competition in Reno and him and Roy could split the winnings in half, he could save his families farm thats in real jeopardy. How such Amish communities manage to live alongside modern society, living a much more traditional sort of life, it is kind of interesting but the movie isnt entirely about that, of course, its more about a down and out type guy who wants to get back to the sport he loved to play as a youngster and get back to making money, while showing an Amish man a taste of what there is 'out there', I suppose.

I was glad that I had recorded this movie as I did find it quite amusing and entertaining. I had heard of it before but I have the feeling that I heard it wasn't particularly worth watching, quite why I'm not sure, I just know I hadn't bothered to see it before but thats fine considering it was shown on TV for free, I can't really complain. I did enjoy it and I thought that both Woody Harrelson and Bill Murray gave good performances and the story kept me interested to see what would happen at the end. There is a slight case of there being a somewhat cheesy moral or a more serious side to the movie, towards the end, mixed with the somewhat surreal and farcical comedy or humour, which you would think maybe doesn't mix but I don't feel I was too bothered by it. This isn't the sort of movie that I think everyone would automatically love but I found it amusing and entertaining enough, so I would recommend it. It isn't entirely realistic in a sense but I wouldn't say that its particularly predictable, or formulaic, which is definitely a good thing. Too many movies can seem overly similar and although it could be said that the humour is similar to movies such as perhaps the Scary Movie movies, as I already mentioned, I didn't feel that the material or the comedy was over tired and I overall enjoyed this, so, all I can say is that I found it quite interesting as a story and pretty funny at times, with a good cast, its worth watching (especially if its going to be repeated on free to watch TV!).