Kingpin
Siskel and Ebert gave Kingpin two thumbs up. They said it was hilarious and everyone was laughing out loud. I didn't find it that funny and not many people were laughing in the theater. Sure, there were the funny moments that some people giggled at, but only a couple scenes actually made people burst out laughing. Then why give the movie a good rating? Well, I suggest the movie because of its story. It has a heart and so do the characters.
The directors of Kingpin also made the riotous Dumb and Dumber, which made me laugh out loud so many times that my side was hurting. It had some disgusting moments, but the comic genius of Jim Carrey and, surprisingly better than Carrey, Jeff Daniels helped a lot. Sure it was stupid, but you can't help laughing at Carrey and Daniels. Kingpin, however, doesn't rely on the actors to be funny. The writing is what makes this funny. Which may be the problem. The movie really isn't that funny, but what it lacks in humor, it makes up for in story and good characters.
The movie begins in 1979 with Roy Munson (Woody Harrelson) who wins $1500 from the Odor Eaters Tournament. He beat Ernie McCracken (Bill Murray) who can see that Roy has potential. He goes on the road with Roy and hustles people. During one incident, the people catch them during the act and cut off Roy's bowling hand. That pretty much ends Roy's career. He has two hooks for a hand and covers them up with a cheap, rubber hand, which becomes a major, on-going joke throughout the movie. He even is called Rubber Man (and gets hired to do commericals for Trojan Condoms) at the final tournament.
After drinking himself into a ditch and not paying rent (the way he pays for the rent is certainly a disgusting run-on joke), Roy stumbles upon Ishmael (Randy Quaid), an Amish farmboy who secretly sneaks into town to bowl. Ishmael can bowl an average 270 game (in 15 frames). Ray decides to teach him how to bowl better and becomes his manager. They go on the road to con people out of their money. When they try to con a bartender of a bowling alley, the guy asks them to meet a rich bowler in his own, personal bowling alley. They accept and meet the guy. Here is where they pick up Claudia (Vanessa Angel).
I was wondering why I liked this movie after I had seen it. The jokes were vulgar and many of them just didn't work. Siskel and Ebert said they laughed at the jokes that didn't work. I didn't. Maybe I'm strange but I usually just laugh at jokes that are actually funny. The funniest jokes are when they are making fun of other movies (e.g. Indecent Proposal and The Seven Year Itch). In fact, I would have enjoyed this movie completely if it was an actual spoof like The Naked Gun series. The Indecent Proposal joke was the funniest thing in the movie. I couldn't stop laughing. But these laughs are far and few between.
So why give it a good review? I liked the plot and enjoyed the characters. This movie could have been either a good drama or a good slapstick comedy. If it's supposed to be a slapstick, then it messed up somewhere along the line. If it was supposed to be a drama (which it wasn't), then it royally screwed up. But it couldn't decide on what it wanted to be and we, the viewers, become bored with it.
Kingpin is rated PG-13. The language is disgusting and vulgar. The violence is pretty tame, but the suggested violence is a little harsh (the hand being cut off). There is no visible nudity but Angel shows off her breasts a lot and she sure does like to jump up and down. But I had no problem with that. P.S. Please excuse the extremely awful nature of this review. It was one of my first.