Raunchy ‘Kingpin’ Heads Down a Dark but Laugh-Filled Alley

Co-directing brothers Peter and Bobby Farrelly, who gave you “Dumb and Dumber,” have now turned out “Kingpin,” and it’s tempting to describe it as “stupid and stupider.”

Its heroes are none too smart, and their story is riddled with improbabilities, shameless sentimentality and sheer silliness. Yet “Kingpin” is just too funny, too knowing, not to be the work of shrewd, canny filmmakers, principally the writing team of Barry Fanaro and Mort Nathan, TV veterans.

Woody Harrelson and Randy Quaid are a constant joy. Back in 1979, Harrelson’s Roy Munson was the state bowling champion of Iowa, a gutsy small-town guy who took his fashion tips from “Saturday Night Fever” and was headed for national triumphs when he was sidelined so savagely by a top bowler (Bill Murray, deliciously villainous) that it cost him his bowling hand.

When we meet Roy 17 years later, he’s an alcoholic bowling supply salesman, living in rural Pennsylvania and so broke he’s facing eviction from his dump of an apartment by his crazed landlady (Lin Shaye).

Then he crosses paths with Quaid’s Ishmael Boorg, a virginal, 40-year-old Amish farmer who bowls in secret. He’s such a natural that Roy sees redemption--and riches--in propelling Ishmael into the championship of the upcoming bowling nationals, to be held in Reno.

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Once they hit the road in Roy’s 1972 Cutlass convertible, a vehicle as derelict as Roy is, they are caught up in no end of crazy adventures. At one point Ishmael even takes a gig as a drag go-go dancer. Along the way they’re joined by Vanessa Angel’s Claudia, who gets by on her curves and street smarts.

“Kingpin” is consistently inventive in its wackiness, with a generous dose of gross-out humor; the target audience is clearly young males, but don’t let that keep you away. Yet it gives way to a larger sense of how ordinary guys like Roy feel overwhelmed by life, especially once they’ve been derailed at such a young age and so long ago.

Similarly, you can feel shivers go through Claudia when she has to admit to herself that she has absolutely nothing to rely on in this increasingly win-or-lose world except her body and her wits.

Made to look bald, paunchy and dissipated, Harrelson, as Roy, epitomizes the American dream gone sour. The Farrellys and their writers are unafraid of projecting an aura of considerable darkness to better set off their wild, broad humor. “Kingpin” is not as predictable as you might expect.

Fanaro and Nathan, who were the writing-producing partners on “The Golden Girls,” have provided their stars plenty of opportunity not only to be hilarious but also to show various facets and moods of these two men. Harrelson especially gets the chance to show us a man undone by hard luck; now he’s trying to coach a guy who’s even more innocent than he once was himself.

Angel, too, gets to reveal dimensions in Claudia beyond her more obvious ones, and Murray is glorious as a self-enchanted creep so obnoxious he can actually say, with imperious nonchalance, to a roadside cafe waitress: “Go wash off that perfume before you come back here.”

“Kingpin” has reunited the Farrellys with “Dumb and Dumber’s” producing team, freewheeling cinematographer Mark Irwin, editor Christopher Greenbury, production designer Sidney Jackson Bartholomew Jr. and costume designer Mary Zophres.

Bartholomew knows how to create blue-collar settings and incorporate roadside Americana, and Zophres luxuriates in the infinite, awful possibilities of polyester, yet their contributions, like the film itself, is affectionate rather than condescending in tone.

“Kingpin” even sneaks in, almost subliminally, a message to the dudes who flock to it: that when your life gets loused up you really can’t get away with blaming it on anybody but yourself.

* MPAA rating: PG-13, for crude, sex-related humor and a drug scene. Times guidelines: The film may be too raunchy for families with small children.

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‘Kingpin’

Woody Harrelson: Roy Munson

Randy Quaid: Ishmael Boorg

Vanessa Angel: Claudia

Bill Murray: Ernie McCracken

An MGM release of a Rysher Entertainment presentation of a Motion Picture Corp. of America production. Directors Peter Farrelly & Bobby Farrelly. Producers Brad Krevoy, Steve Stabler, Bradley Thomas. Executive producer Keith Samples. Screenplay by Barry Fanaro & Mort Nathan. Cinematographer Mark Irwin. Editor Christopher Greenbury. Costumes Mary Zophres. Music Freedy Johnston. Production designer Sidney Jackson Bartholomew Jr. Art director Jay Vetter. Set decorator Bradford Johnson. Running time: 1 hour, 54 minutes.

* In general release throughout Southern California.