Why filmmakers decide to mix sport with COMEDY is beyond me and Kingpin is a good example of why not to.

Rating: 5/10 (14 September 2007)

Something I've found with sports films is that the less funny they are, the better. When I say 'less funny', I mean when they're not attempting to be comedies. Some of the best sports films from down the years have been the ones that don't show sports as a joke; films that don't send up the sports and films that don't try to be funny. Raging Bull, The Hustler and The Colour of Money are amongst these examples with The Hustler and The Colour of Money particularly relevant examples. When it comes to humour in sports films, Happy Gilmore is probably the only one that I actually liked and which was supposed to be a comedy; odd how it too features a mentor with a false hand. Because of this, that means Kingpin is, in my opinion, a failure.
This is quite a bump landing for Woody Harrelson who went from Natural Born Killers in 1994 to this junk with the mediocre but fun Money Train in between. Here, he doesn't play a cross country killer but a cross country bowling coach called Roy Munson as he coaches a protégé called Ishmael Boorg (Quaid). This is where the references to The Hustler and The Colour of Money come in  Kingpin is a failed and flawed version of these two films but with bowling replacing pool right down to the way the final tournament (in The Colour of Money) is started as each competitor simultaneously takes the first shot in their respective match.
Kingpin has several basic things wrong with it that makes it disgusting, unfunny, badly paced and frustrating. I feel the biggest problem is the casting of Randy Quaid as the shy, innocent and all round good guy Ishmael. There's something I can't quite put my finger on that's wrong with it because the guy's delivery is flat and unfunny and the character in general is just too inconsistent. He's oblivious to the world despite his age yet can give monologues about life and how bad smoking is to people and inspire them to think differently. The fact he's also a complete idiot doesn't help the consistency of the character either. Also, the humour in Kingpin is rather pathetic yet at the same time, grotesque: the 'milking' of a bull scene was disgusting, the sex with the old landlady and the subsequent shots of Roy vomiting was uncalled for, the kissing of the elderly relative with the huge beard was nasty and topping it all of was Ishmael/Quaid himself dressed as some sort of drag queen stripper. None of this was funny or even pleasant to look at so you can imagine how very surprised I was when I realised that the script was actually written by someone over the age of ten.
Kingpin tries to have a heart as it forces its protagonist to face former demons back at his home town about half way through. The reason these scenes are good is because the film isn't relying on dumb humour but also because the last time we were at these locations was in the opening which was very well done. The scenes of Roy as a boy bowling in is yard, the 1979 tournament and the way the camera and the disco music combines as he enters the alley is fun and very effective so how ironic that when Roy suffers his past tragedy, the film turns into a different type of beast. How very quaint that Roy also manages to give the definition of a mentor when he's trying to convince Ishmael to become his protégé without actually saying: 'I'll be your mentor'. Also, how very quaint that thanks to weak cause and effect a love interest manages to worm its way into the plot. Kingpin is perhaps fun for the first fifteen minutes but then misses the mark more times than it should with gross, unfunny humour; bad characterisation of the protégé and just a really bland feeling that it's trying too hard to be funny as well as tragic.