Kingpin

Kingpin follows former pro bowler Roy Munson (Woody Harrelson) as he convinces an Amish man (Randy Quaid’s Ishmael) to join him on the road, with the movie eventually building to a climactic confrontation between Roy and his old nemesis, Ernie McCracken (Bill Murray). It’s an appealing premise that’s employed to seriously erratic effect by Peter and Bobby Farrelly, as Kingpin seems to contain an equal number of entertaining and superfluous sequences – which naturally results in a lack of momentum that only grows more and more problematic as time progresses. There’s little doubt, however, that Kingpin does boast a handful of agreeable elements, with the various performances standing as an obvious (and ongoing) highlight in the proceedings. Harrelson’s go-for-broke turn as the pathetic yet affable Roy Munson remains a source of consistent amusement here, while Murray delivers a typically scene-stealing turn as the sleazy, obnoxious Ernie McCracken. (This is to say nothing of the stellar work turned in by folks like Lin Shaye, Vanessa Angel, and Quaid.) And although Barry Fanaro and Mort Nathan’s script admittedly does possess a handful of amusing moments, Kingpin is, to an increasingly distressing extent, saddled with a padded-out vibe that’s compounded by a distinct lack of laughs – with the movie building to a completely tedious showdown between Harrelson and Murray’s respective characters (which is, in turn, followed by a hopelessly anticlimactic final stretch). The end result is a pervasively uneven comedy that just isn’t able to overcome its various deficiencies, which is too bad, really, given the strength of its premise and performances.

** out of ****