The box office failure of Kingpin and The Big Lebowski strongly suggests that bowling comedies co-directed by brothers are not a sure bet. Artistically, each film is very successful; the Farrellys and the Coens begin Kingpin and The Big Lebowski, respectively, by mocking their characters' milieu, slowly, steadily developing affection for not only the dynamics between serious bowlers but also the game itself. It's a recreation no less difficult than most sports; what makes bowling an easy target of hucksters is its lack of vanity. The Farrellys, especially, mine these out-of-shape professional "athletes" for all their comic and emotional worth.

Roy Munson (Woody Harrelson) is a down-on-his-luck, one-handed ex-bowling champ with a kindred spirit in Ishmael Boorg (Randy Quaid, who manages to look very youthful), the Amish wiz who ducks into the local alley for surreptitious rounds of ten-pin. As it so happens, both Roy and Ishmael need money, the former to shake his repulsive landlady's (Lin Shaye, brilliant) eviction threats, the latter to save his farm. So the twosome head for a big tournament in Reno, with Roy honing Ishmael's skills and generally corrupting him along the way. Claudia (Vanessa Angel), the abused girlfriend of a wealthy crook, eventually joins them: she plays decoy in their petty hustles. (They don't even have enough dough to get to Reno.)

Roy is an amputee because Ernie McCracken (Bill Murray) left him in the lurch during a big-time hustle gone awry. Thus began Roy's downward spiral into alcohol and theft. (He wraps one-dollar bills in a twenty, ripping cashiers off at every opportunity.) The movie inevitably leads back to McCracken, awaiting the trio in Reno to spoil the good cheer. Kingpin's narrative structure resembles The Karate Kid or Rocky I-V (take your pick): more important to Roy than accolades is defeating his archenemy.

I'm not sure why I like Kingpin so much. It's full of dud punchlines but never the ones you're quite expecting. Its sight gags are very effective (including the wardrobe and hairdos of everyone except Angel). As in their follow-up, There's Something About Mary, the scatalogical humour in Kingpin cannot combat the film's genteel tone. (Though you may have trouble watching Witness with a straight face ever again.) I cared about Roy Munson (whose last name becomes a synonym for failure), Ishmael, and Claudia. The Farrellys are the ZuckerAbrahamsZucker of the nineties: a tad more vulgar (I'm remembering the landlady's "pump and dump" speech in disgust), a little more ironic, and a lot more sensitive, when all's said and done.

MGM's Kingpin DVD has finally arrived in stores after months of delays. Fans like me wrote in to complain of the studio's initial decision to release the film in only full-frame on a featureless disc. Capitalizing on the success of There's Something About Mary, Kingpin comes to us at last in a special edition of sorts. I sat through the widescreen and standard versions, the latter while listening to the commentary, and I must say I'm a bit surprised by the difference in image quality between the two. The (superior) widescreen side is letterboxed at 2.35:1 (preserving the theatrical aspect ratio) and 16x9-enhanced, and it looks colourful and clear, with the exception of a few shots that appear too soft. The standard side is identical in terms of tint and saturation, but appears hazier, even grainy at times. Since Mark Irwin shot Kingpin in Super35, the full-frame contains more picture information than the widescreen, and vice versa. I wish Hollywood would do away with scope release prints of Super35 movies and decide on an aspect ratio closer to the negative image (which itself ranges anywhere from 1.33:1 to 1.85:1), if only to make my job as a reviewer much easier.

(Note: my player--the Pioneer DVL-700--accentuated the line structure in its downcoversion of the anamorphic version more than usual, for reasons unknown. The letterboxed Kingpin also displayed French subtitles for the English title cards, even with all subtitles turned to "off" in the main menu.)

The Kingpin disc houses a 5.1 Dolby Digital mix, one that is most active during songs. Instruments surround you, but for the most part, only the front three channels are active. (My subwoofer burped occasionally, though I don't recall specific instances.) In addition to a trailer and really funky animated menus, Kingpin on DVD includes four more minutes originally snipped to earn the movie a PG-13. The R-rating of this cut perplexes me: there's nothing dirtier than what was already there, in my humble opinion. (The chapter list in the included eight-page booklet highlights the new scenes with asterisks.) As for the commentary, it's boring. Perhaps unfairly, I expected a laugh riot from Peter and Bobby Farrelly--their talk show appearances never fail to amuse. Mostly, the siblings point out their friends, every one of whom, it seems, found employment as Kingpin extras. Their prattling is the home video equivalent of watching somebody's vacation slides.-Bill Chambers