Kingpin [VHS] [1996]

The team behind Dumb and Dumber and There's Something About Mary--two really stupid, gross-out films that worked and were quite funny--also made King Pin, a really stupid, gross-out comedy that doesn't work and isn't funny at all. Woody Harrelson stars as a former bowling phenomenon with a hook for a hand, and Randy Quaid is an Amish farmer with a hidden talent for pins. The two join forces and get a sexy business partner (Vanessa Angel), and the film starts looking more and more like a jokey variation of The Colour of Money. The Colour of Money, however, didn't feature jokes about having oral sex with a hideous landlady or defecating in a sink or dragging disgusting stuff out of one's teeth with a length of floss. Bill Murray provides some much-needed relief as Harrelson's ex-partner turned rival. How come this stuff is obnoxious while the equally perverse punch lines of There's Something About Mary are a riot? It's a great mystery, all right, but there it is. --Tom Keogh