Two Guys Walk Into a Bowling Alley....

Rating: 6/10 (22 April 2015)

This often-amusing piece of trash begins with a scene out of Paul Newman's "The Hustler." Bill Murray sees the latent bowling talent in Woody Harrelson, cultivates it, and they set out hustling small-town rubes. Harrelson pretends to be drunk and is faced with an impossible frame. Everyone bets against him and when he makes the spare, he and Murray split the money. That is, until finally some clot of rubes wakes up to the scam and grinds Harrelson's bowling hand off, while Murray cheerfully speeds off alone.
A tragic tale. Harrelson is a real down-and-outer in Baltimore, forced to service his landlady in lieu of the rent. She has a face like Euryale the gorgon and he vomits voluminously after the bout.
Then he gets a lucky break. He spots a young man, Randy Quaid, from a neighboring Amish town who has the same talented touch with a bowling ball, and persuades him to take to the road. They hustle their way to the million-dollar championship bowl off in Reno, Nevada, picking up some enemies along the way, not to mention Vanessa Angel. The two final contestants are Harrelson, bowling with his hook instead of his hand, and the egomaniacal Murray.
I didn't think it was as inventive as "There's Something About Mary". There is no equivalent of Ben Stiller's arrest at the roadside tea room. Yet it is funny and it gets funnier as it meanders along. Some of the gags are silly and pointless -- the burly Quaid dressed in tights and doing a pole dance. But there's wit in some of the visual gags -- Harrelson bending over a cute baby, making goo goo sounds, and chucking it under the chin with his hook while the mother's eyes bulge with anxiety.
And the dialog has its moments too. "You know, you're not the most intelligent person on earth." "Oh, yeah, and who are you, Alfred Einstein?" Then there are the performances, uniformly professional. We'll begin with Vanessa Angel. Yes, let's begin with her. The English-born actress has a mellifluous voice, a little throaty, and is strikingly attractive, a paragon of pulchritude. Oh, yum.
Quaid is a large, clumsy actor but his role rather suits him -- the stolid, God-fearing, son of the soil, who takes his first automobile ride and shortly afterwards is taking hits from a long blue bong.
Harrelson doesn't exactly have an actor's elocution. He has a weak voice and usually sounds as if he's reading his lines from some off-screen cue card. But he excels at light comedy, especially when the comedy has a slightly deranged quality, as it does here.
Murray plays it straight at first but the final confrontation in Reno gives him a chance to unwind. He is absolutely hilarious, seen on television in a parody of one of those ad miseracordiam commercials for "Unified Way". "Little Charlotte here has never eaten a hot dog in her life. She lives in poverty and depends on your donations to keep her alive." Meanwhile, Murray is copping feels from the local mothers and daughters. I laughed out loud when Murray wept with joy at the prospect of beating Harrelson at the championship bowl off.
I'm glad we see a little bit of what looks like Reno too. Reno is a pleasant, laid back little city. I've spent many cozy nights there at the elegant Mapes Hotel, sleeping in the lobby.