the happy bastard's quick movie review the concept of enjoying a stupid comedy is best realized as keeping it stupid , really . shift gears even once and the audience can be thrown miserably out of control . <NEG> sadly </NEG> , that is the case with kingpin , a film directed by the farrelly brothers , the duo that brought us there's something about mary and dumb and dumber . since the duo directed and didn't write the script , i can assume that's part of the problem . the story seems good enough : a pro bowler in the 1970's by the name of roy munson ( woody harrelson ) is sitting on top of the world . his popularity has gone through the roof and he's getting his career off the ground . then , however , he runs into ed mccracken ( bill murray ) , a rival bowler with hardly any real consideration for , well , anything . these two form an ill-timed relationship that involves risky betting , and , before roy sees it coming , ed's abandoned him and he's about to lose his hand in a bowling ball machine . forward seventeen years later , where roy has become quite the loser , complete with mechanical hand , torn-up car , and , of course , the occasional knocking up of the ugly-ass landlord to avoid paying rent for a while . however , he finds a glimmer of a hope upon a visit to a local bowling alley , where he runs into an amish kid named ishmael ( randy quaid ) , who has quite the bowling arm . with the kid's help , he figures he can be known again , particularly at the biggest bowling tournament rapidly approaching in reno , nevada . of course , the amish kid needs some coaxing , particularly when you consider , well , he's amish . this leads to some of the best comic scenes in the film , such as roy's process of removing horseshoes or milking the cow . finally , the duo get on the road and , along the way , pick up an additional helper- a beautiful hustler ( played by the gorgeous vanessa angel ) . <NEG> the main problem i had </NEG> with kingpin wasn't the fact it wasn't funny . in fact , it does have some rather hilarious scenes in it , such as the aformentioned above and roy's explanation of not having children ( something involving a cheese grater ? ) . but that's just it- scenes . there's a couple of really serious scenes that <NEG> throw off the entire momentum of the movie </NEG> , like the abuse angel takes from her hustler ex-boyfriend . i mean , was this really necessary ? couldn't have this been handled just a bit wackier ? i mean , this is a comedy , why throw ethics in ? particularly in a farrelly brothers vehicle , where hair gel can be easily mistaken ? <NEG> that really ruined it , however , and that's too bad </NEG> . the acting is top notch , especially from angel and murray , and the really funny scenes are worth noting . still , if you're going to think dumb , think dumb all the way through , ok ? at least the farrelly brothers got back on track with mary or i'd still be a little bit irked .
