Undescribable Perfection

Powerful

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

A star bowler whose career was prematurely "cut off" hopes to ride a new prodigy to success and riches.The two big comedies from this team are "Kingpin" and "There's Something About Mary". Both have some gross-out humor, and this one definitely is not afraid of poop, vomit and bull fluids. I could probably do without all that. And this is probably the lesser of the two. It succeeds in making Lin Shaye, a wonderful person, into a horrifying monster.Funny? Yes. And definitely a different sort of role for Randy Quaid. Bill Murray shines (as always). I always feel a little bit weird when Amish folks show up in films because they seem to be the butt of jokes, and they are probably not even aware that people make fun of them.

It's 1979. Roy Munson (Woody Harrelson) was raised by father to be one of the best bowlers in the world. He beats Ernie McCracken (Bill Murray) at the 1979 Odor-Eaters championship. Ernie puts sugar in his car engine and convinces the naive Roy to hustle a bowling game. Ernie leaves him behind as the angry mob grinds off his bowling hand. 17 years later, he's reduced to a traveling salesman. He discovers Ishmael Boorg (Randy Quaid) at a bowling alley. He's a nice Amish guy whose family would disown him for bowling. The Farrelly brothers keep trying and trying. Most of the jokes don't work but they keep trying. The premise and the setups are all ridiculously stupid. The characters are marginally compelling and one could root for Munson.

Roy Munson was the best bowler in the world. But a fellow bowler, Ernie McCracken and a misunderstanding with some rough punks, left Roy with the loss of his bowling hand.He gets a prosthetic hand and becomes a travelling salesman. But it's really all down hill for him from that night on until he meets Ishmael who is Amish and sneaks away from the farm to bowl.Roy convinces Ishmael to let him be his trainer and he'll make him the best bowler the world has ever seen.Reluctantly Ishmael agrees to go on the road and shortly afterwards actually finds that life outside the farm is quite fun. Soon their paths cross that of Ernie McCracken who is still a top ranking bowler.While Roy's career and life have landed in the toilet bowl, Ernie is still drawing huge crowds....Whilenot as good as Dumb and Dumber, the Farrellys comedy still felt pretty fresh and new for it's time of release.If this was released now, it wouldn't have has the plaudits is had, it would probably end up on late night TV, and wouldn't have the great cast.Harrelson is great as Roy, but cannot hold up to Quaid and a brilliant Murray, whenever they are on screen, the film really shines and becomes funny.Sadly, the rest of the film relies on horrid toilet humour and scenes that try and push the boundaries for a '12' movie, it doesn't work and the film has aged badly.That said, the hair is great in this movie, and while the Farrellys haven't really made a good original film for fourteen years, they proved with their first three movies they were a little left-field.

This film is absolutely hilarious, deadpan stupid at times, and more reserved and subtle at others - its the perfect hangover cure. Harrelson is fantastic as a hard-done-by bowler who got done over ('Munsoned' is the phrase later used, which is his actual name in the film to his annoyance) and is out for another shot at the big time. His sidekick is an innocent religious countryman whose style contrasts well with all the others - Murray is just great, but could have been in it more. One scene, for me, really stands out. Certainly in terms of Gramsci esque masculine humour - Murray is in a eaterie with Harrelson and tells him to 'go outside and eat that', then he tells a waitress to come back after washing off her perfume, finally he says 'hi' to a fit bird sat across the way. Her mum says 'hi' and Murray says 'not you - hi'. The younger fit bird smiles and says 'hi'. This film is just great.