Grab a seat, have a few beers...and start laughing !!

Rating: 8/10 (18 July 2003)

My favorite actor once wrote in one of his best movies " All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" ... That's how I felt about this movie. I love a decent and serious drama or epic but sometimes I just feel like laughing silly and lower my brain activity. And Kinpin is one of the best films to do this. Sprung from the mind of the Farrelly brothers, this comedy about the bowling world is hilarious. Well acted by respectable actors and filled with great jokes and quote-material. Just the right doses of sentimental elements and (almost) never over the top. Back in 1979, Roy Munson (Woody Harrelson) was a very gifted bowler. Due to the bad influence of Ernie McCracken (Bill Murray in a great role) his bowling hand was mutilated by villains. Now 17 years later, Roy is a schmuck and a drunk. He meets the very naive Amish guy Ishmaël ( Randy Quaid ) who is a great bowling talent. Roy wants to take him to Reno where a bowling contest is held. At first Ishmaël doesn't want to cause it doesn't fit in his Amish way of life but when his fathers tells him the community needs money he finally agrees. The way to Reno and the search for money causes a lot of hilarious situations. They meet a gorgeous woman, Claudia (Vanessa Angel) and she joins them to their trip to Reno. All the actors give a terrific performance. All that Vanessa Angel has to do is being sexy, of course, but she does that like no other woman could. Randy Quaid is cast perfect in the role of the Amish son of a farmer. His naive way of life give us the funniest scenes in the movie. I'm a big fan of Woody Harrelson and I think he can handle comedy as good as the serious roles he played in Natural Born Killers and The People vs Larry Flint. OK, he was in the funny sitcom Cheers but the this is a whole other kind of comedy. The supporting roles are very good as well, and the landlady is the first that comes to mind. Great, I tell you !! This is my personal favorite of the Farrelly bros. Although I laughed very hard with Dumb & Dumber and Something about Mary too, this film has something special. I can't really explain what that is. Anyway, this film is highly recommended to everyone who can appreciate a good comedy and isn't easily offended. People may claim that it's vulgar, but I think that's rather relative. I think it's a lot less vulgar than those typical high school comedies like American Pie. It's more accessible for people too in my opinion.