Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Given the dearth of of movies out there that treat bowling in a serious light, this documentary is well worth watching. I would definitely recommend it to anyone considering a career in professional bowling.This documentary delves into the psyche behind the bowlers and the PBA commissioner. All in all, this analysis is actually very entertaining and informative. The only parts of this documentary that I found lacking was a piece on the fans and the popularity of the sport world wide. PBA fans run the gauntlet among society and it would have been interesting to see a cross section of these fans. It would also have been interesting to show some of the international PBA regulars that compete on tour (they did show a brief piece on England's Stuart Williams but should have included Ameletto Monacelli or Mika Kouvunemi).Again, this does not detract from this documentary. In fact, since there is such a lack of quality material available on this topic it is easy to see what was left out :)This is a good film and I recommend it without hesitation.

I need to start by saying that this is a reasonably well-constructed film. The music in particular really worked well and fit the film. Also the selection of the four bowlers to highlight was a great choice as they all were so different. In particular, though depressing, Wayne Webb's profile was the most interesting to me--a guy who literally only had bowling and in the end he lost even that.However, I was not especially taken with the film for several reasons. Fundamentally, the film had the biggest "strike" against it with me in particular--I just didn't find the subject matter interesting. Sure, going bowling is great entertainment, but watching others bowl just didn't appeal to me. Additionally, I was turned off at how obnoxious and crude several of the people were--it was just hard to like them. In particular, the new PBA organizer came off, to me, as a bit of a jerk. Oddly, however, even with his and Pete Weber's rather raw language, I was surprised that the film was rated R--as I've heard much worse in several PG-13 films. Because many won't care much for bowling and still others will be turned off by the R rating, this film appears to have a very, very narrow audience.

Follows an attempt to revitalize the Professional Bowler's Association, which had fallen on hard times and was in danger of going bankrupt. The "revitalization" mainly seems to consist of a wholescale borrowing from extreme sports and the WWE and is mostly pretty silly to these eyes, although it's clear that a lot of other people dig it.The movie follows a bunch of old-time pro bowlers caught up in the transformation as they wend their way to a "world championship". Most interesting is Wayne Webb, a nice, fragile sort who devoted his life to the sport only to discover that it no longer has much use for him. Webb is a complicated guy, as much a victim of his own weaknesses as he is a victim of his world. It's nice to see that the movie doesn't cheapen him, reduce him down to a stereotypical one-dimension.The movie gets very exciting towards the end, even for this general bowling-skeptic. And it's full of sly jokes -- the best of which is a complex one: the movie begins with the assertion from some bowling fans that the movie KINGPIN presented an exaggerated, stereotypical view of bowling. By the end of the movie, though, we're well into KINGPIN's world, complete with middle-aged men doing crotch shots, cheesy introductions, and a lot of red lighting.

Almost every major sport has been 'modernized' in order to compete with the growing demand for LIVE sports on television, and now the long-forgotten endeavor known as Professional American bowling re-enters the media spotlight with a BANG! For decades bowling has been a favorite of the blue collar set for it's mixture of 'beerdrinking & camaraderie', or basically a glorified 'boys-night-out' while the wives did their thing at home. Amidst this laid-back milieu the Professional Bowlers Association began to cultivate a more refined interest in the game for those bowlers capable of consistent 'perfect' games (that's a 300 score). ABC's 'Wide World of Sports' came on board and the sport seemed legitimized for many years until ABC left and the league itself faced bankruptcy.Enter the 'new blood'. It only cost a few guys from Microsoft $5 million to BUY the PBA and launch their own strategy to bring bowling back to the world stage. This film entertainingly chronicles both the pluses and minuses of modernizing a long beloved sport as well as what it takes to get everyone on the 'same page'. A perfect example of this is when new CEO Steve Miller opens the normally low-key pre-season league meeting with a slew of visceral invectives that compared favorably in my mind with Alec Baldwin's f-word laden opening speech in "Glengarry, Glen Ross." As you can see, this is not your ordinary behind-the-scenes sports documentary with no punches pulled and nothing having to be censored for FCC approval. Best of all, the filmmakers have chosen several bowlers to profile that encompass almost everything the sport represents while managing to incorporate the requisite 'drama' that separates exciting docu-tainment like this from your ordinary, average sports documentary.Most notable exception to the idea of 'blue collar' bowling is Walter Ray Williams Jr., a former physics professor who's parlayed his knowledge of centrifugal force (along with a keen eye) into a string of championships in both bowling and horseshoes. His laid-back style makes him the obvious 'good guy' in this competitive tale, but he's also the man that everyone else is out to beat.His main nemesis is outlaw bowler Pete Weber, the son of PBA legend Dick Weber and the exact opposite of Walter in every way except his desire to knock down pins. Pete is the John McEnroe of bowling with his loud mouth, dark sunglasses, and inappropriate psyche-out methods that include taunting opponents as well as his signature gesture - the 'crotch-chop'.Film follows the entire season from start to finish culminating with the first-ever 2003 PBA World Championships in Detroit, MI. This is one showdown that's worth the price of admission alone and seeing bowling on the big screen adds a lot more to excitement and suspense. Perfect movie for a double date followed by a night at the lanes. Get the tix, and set up the pins - BOWLING'S BACK BABY!!!