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Kingpin
The Farrelly Brothers have had questionable success with their overindulgent comedies rich with raunchy bathroom humor, but thanks to the performances of Woody Harrelson, Randy Quaid, and Bill Murray, the 1996 comedy Kimgpin seems a lot better than it really is.
Harrelson plays Roy Munson, a former professional bowler whose career was cut short by an incident where he lost his hand, which involved fellow bowler, Ernie McCracken (Murray).
Many years later, a nearly destitute Roy may have found a way back to the top when he encounters an Amish guy named Ishmael (Quaid) who Roy thinks has the potential to go to the top and the road trip for the two of them that leads to a bowling tournament in Reno Nevada with a $1,000,000 first prize,
Peter and Bobby Farrelly have always been sort of the Taylor Hackford of movie comedies where I'm concerned. Their approach to cinematic storytelling is overly complex and self-indulgent, resulting in films that are usually about 30 minutes longer than they need to be and this film is no exception. The opening exposition introducing us to Roy and how he lost his hand definitely could have been tightened up, as well as the guys' encounter with the mobster whose girl (Vanessa Angel) runs off with the boys. They could have trimmed down these scenes, possibly freeing up more time for Roy pretending to be Amish in order to get Ishmael to hit the road with him or just beefing up Bill Murray's role.
Barry Fanaro and Mort Nathan's screenplay doesn't contain as much of the kind of bathroom humor that we have come to expect from a Farrelly Brothers movie...there was only one real scene that I would file under "gross", but there is a whole lot of objectifying of women here as well as inferences about sex with farm animals, so if you have a problem with those sorts of things, you might want to give this one a pass. I can't imagine that the Amish were too thrilled at the way they are portrayed here either.
But what makes this movie worth sitting through is the inspired performances from the three leads. Harrelson creates one of his most tragic comic heroes here and Quaid matches him scene for scene, though I have to admit that while watching, I kept picturing these two switching roles. And, as always, Bill Murray had me on the floor, stealing every single scene he had as the smarmy McCracken. If scene stealing were an actual crime, Murray would be serving a life sentence. A movie that provides fairly consistent laughs thanks to a trio of actors who raise the bar on this one.
The Farrelly Brothers have had questionable success with their overindulgent comedies rich with raunchy bathroom humor, but thanks to the performances of Woody Harrelson, Randy Quaid, and Bill Murray, the 1996 comedy Kimgpin seems a lot better than it really is.
Harrelson plays Roy Munson, a former professional bowler whose career was cut short by an incident where he lost his hand, which involved fellow bowler, Ernie McCracken (Murray).
Many years later, a nearly destitute Roy may have found a way back to the top when he encounters an Amish guy named Ishmael (Quaid) who Roy thinks has the potential to go to the top and the road trip for the two of them that leads to a bowling tournament in Reno Nevada with a $1,000,000 first prize,
Peter and Bobby Farrelly have always been sort of the Taylor Hackford of movie comedies where I'm concerned. Their approach to cinematic storytelling is overly complex and self-indulgent, resulting in films that are usually about 30 minutes longer than they need to be and this film is no exception. The opening exposition introducing us to Roy and how he lost his hand definitely could have been tightened up, as well as the guys' encounter with the mobster whose girl (Vanessa Angel) runs off with the boys. They could have trimmed down these scenes, possibly freeing up more time for Roy pretending to be Amish in order to get Ishmael to hit the road with him or just beefing up Bill Murray's role.
Barry Fanaro and Mort Nathan's screenplay doesn't contain as much of the kind of bathroom humor that we have come to expect from a Farrelly Brothers movie...there was only one real scene that I would file under "gross", but there is a whole lot of objectifying of women here as well as inferences about sex with farm animals, so if you have a problem with those sorts of things, you might want to give this one a pass. I can't imagine that the Amish were too thrilled at the way they are portrayed here either.
But what makes this movie worth sitting through is the inspired performances from the three leads. Harrelson creates one of his most tragic comic heroes here and Quaid matches him scene for scene, though I have to admit that while watching, I kept picturing these two switching roles. And, as always, Bill Murray had me on the floor, stealing every single scene he had as the smarmy McCracken. If scene stealing were an actual crime, Murray would be serving a life sentence. A movie that provides fairly consistent laughs thanks to a trio of actors who raise the bar on this one.