Written by Bobby Fanaro and Mort Nathan
Directed by Bobby Farrelly and Peter Farrelly
I’ve never been one for the Farrelly brothers type of humor. It’s just not what appeals to me. That said, I am a huge fan of Bill Murray and Woody Harrelson to a lesser degree. With recommendations from a few friends, I checked out Kingpin, and it wasn’t nearly as bad as I was expecting.
Roy Munsen (Harrelson) is a professional bowler who messes with the wrong people and has his hand destroyed in a ball return, ending his career. From then on, his life takes a turn for the worse. It’s to the point that he’s trading sex with his rather unappealing landlady in exchange for keeping a roof over his head. Something has to give. That something is him happening upon an Amish man named Ishmael (portrayed by Randy Quaid). Ishmael is a natural bowler and Munsen takes him under his wing, so to speak. His goal is to get Ishmael to compete in a million-dollar tournament in Reno.
The jokes here are typical where Munsen tries to convince Ishmael to travel to Reno by joining him on his family farm. Knowing nothing about farming, Munsen makes missteps that are predictable and crude. Jokes of the city boy versus farm animals are nothing new but will likely appeal to the younger set regardless. Once Ishmael is convinced to go with Munsen (no great surprise there) the jokes are at his expense as the fish out of water. Again, there are no real surprises but there are moments that I still found to be funny. Harrelson is a good enough comedic actor as is Quaid that they made some ridiculous and repetitive jokes work.
Then there’s Murray. He’s a bit of a straight man here as Munsen’s arch-rival who’s not above cheating to win. Every scene he was in was an absolute delight and really redeemed the film for me since it’s not what I usually like. Murray plays up the jokes in his typical dry fashion if you’ve seen him in roles before such as Meatballs or Scrooged.
I know what it is about the Farrelly brothers that their comedy appeals to some. It just doesn’t with me. Even with that bias, I didn’t totally hate Kingpin. There was enough humor that wasn’t based on being as crude or as gross as possible that I did enjoy it. I counted on Bill Murray to save the film for me and he did once again. I also enjoyed Harrelson quite a bit and Quaid had plenty of time to shine as well. If you aren’t into the Farrelly brothers’ crude brand of humor, you still won’t love the film, but it’s one I would say is worth a shot due to the caliber of the talent.
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Categories: Movie Reviews
I used to like Randy Quaid. And, to be fair, I still like his acting, especially on “Independence Day.” However, now that he’s full-blown MAGA, I can’t stand him. (And…yes, I’ve tried to separate the man from his movie and TV roles, but he’s so far-right, I can’t. Same for James Woods.)
Same here. As well as a few others.
The biggest disappointment for me along those lines was Eric Clapton. He’s not MAGA, but he’s anti-Vax, as I understand it.
Because *he* had a reaction so now he thinks it’s bad. He’s still here to talk about it, so it wasn’t that bad. I was in bed for 2 days with one of the boosters. I’d still take it over having COVID, which I’m pretty sure I’ve had at least twice.
One of the shots made me woozy. Covid had me sleeping for an entire day. The shingles vaccine made me sick, too. But I was expecting that. I had a blanket, a cup of tea, and an Agatha Christie novel all line up. Much preferred to getting shingles.
The last shingles shot I had (because I thought I hadn’t gotten both of them) I was really sick. That was likely because I *had* both my shingles shots and getting another one showed it was effective!
YIKES! Yeah, how unpleasant.