When Peter and Bobby Farrelly made their filmmaking debut with 1994’s Dumb and Dumber, they scored a major hit. Four years later, they created an even bigger success via 1998’s There’s Something About Mary.

In between these successes, however, they flopped. While Dumber snared $127 million US and Mary snared $176 million, 1996’s Kingpin took in a mere $24 million. I’d love to say it qualifies as some sort of lost classic, but unfortunately, the witless Kingpin deserved its fate.

In 1979, Iowa farmboy Roy Munson (Woody Harrelson) defeats sleazy Ernie McCracken (Bill Murray) for the state championship. Before Roy plans to head west to find his fortune in the sport, Ernie convinces him to hustle at a local alley. After they win big bucks, one of the suckers recognizes Roy so the guys punish him by sticking his bowling hand in the ball return.

Fast-forward 17 years and we find Roy as a drunk with little in terms of financial means. One day he meets a talented Amish bowler named Ishmael (Randy Quaid) and becomes the prodigy’s manager. We follow their path to hoped-for fame and fortune.

Kingpin offers a comedy in name only. There's so little funny material on display that it's positively stunning, as you'd think that they'd get something right every once in a while, if just by sheer dumb luck.

Actually, the movie starts off with some promise, almost completely due to the presence of Bill Murray. As we learn in the DVD’s audio commentary, Murray literally threw away his script and made up the vast majority of his lines himself. As such, it's not a coincidence that Murray’s parts of Kingpin become the only scenes that offer any laughs.

Unfortunately, Murray essentially departs the picture after about the first 15 minutes. We see more of him toward the end of the film, but by then it's a case of too little, too late. No matter how hard he tries, Murray can’t redeem the movie after all the unfunny nonsense that crops up along the way.

Other than Murray, nothing in Kingpin makes a positive impact. The rest of the movie displays a mush of inane comic antics that rarely approach the realm of "funny." Many of the same lousy jokes get repeated over and over again, and there are only so many prosthetic hand gags one man can take; that prop gets way overused.

Outside of Murray, the actors function as virtual nonentities - they just take up space. Well, that's not completely true; Vanessa Angel looks really hot. She couldn't act her way out of the proverbial paper bag and her comic skills are nonexistent, but she does get the old pulse racing.

Woody Harrelson and Randy Quaid are talented and likable actors, but they're completely wasted here. Neither possesses the comedic skills necessary to make Kingpin watchable. Actually, I'm not sure anyone is that good; if Murray hadn't scrapped the script, he probably would have bombed as well.

Way too much of the film’s material replaces cleverness and wit with simple outrageousness and shock. There's nothing funny about Woody Harrelson getting it on with a skanky old lady and then vomiting - it's just disgusting. Woody with a "milk mustache" of bull semen? Same deal.

It requires no skill to develop these kinds of gags; you just have to be someone who likes to say and do socially inappropriate things. The Farrelly brothers are the kid in your school who would eat a worm just to get a reaction; they wouldn't know a good joke or a funny scene if it bopped them in the butt.

Kingpin also runs far too long. The movie pushes the two-hour mark and it shows. The story - or what little plot we find - slowly meanders its way toward the film's inevitable conclusion. The film wouldn't have been any funnier, but a tighter cut - say, in the 90 to 100 minute range - would have made it more bearable; the tedium of the enterprise makes the lack of humor even more difficult to stand.

As it stands, Kingpin winds up as a too long, too stupid attempt at comedy. Even with a talented cast, the movie can’t deliver any form of entertainment.

Kingpin appears in both an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. I felt pleased with this mostly appealing picture.

Sharpness was positive. A few wide shots displayed mild softness, but those instances caused no real distractions. The majority of the flick showed good delineation. Jagged edges and moiré effects never cropped up, and no edge haloes appeared. With natural grain, I didn’t suspect digital noise reduction, and print flaws created no concerns; I saw a speck or two but nothing more.

Colors were fine. The movie opted for a natural palette that showed a pretty positive range of tones held back only by the era’s lackluster film stocks. Blacks came across as dark and dense, and shadows showed nice clarity. Nothing about the image dazzled, but I thought it satisfied given the movie’s era.

Don’t expect much from the highly restrained DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Kingpin, as it offered little in terms of sonic ambition. In the front, the mix presented mediocre stereo spread and mild breadth from effects. Occasionally the track delivered a smidge of movement or involvement, but these instances were minor and forgettable.

Even less material came from the surrounds, as they stayed passive. In truth, the listener would be hard-pressed to cite many instances in which the back speakers came to life at all, as they seemed virtually silent. Granted, I don’t expect much five-channel pizzazz from a comedy like this, but the imaging appeared awfully lackluster nonetheless.

Audio quality was also bland. Speech seemed intelligible and reasonably natural, which made it the strongest aspect of the track. Music stayed clear but didn’t have much range, as the songs/score seemed somewhat flat and thin.

Effects worked about the same, as they were clean but without much heft. Even with the limited expectations that came with a movie of this sort, I thought the soundtrack was average at best.

How does the Blu-ray compare to the original 1999 DVD? Audio was a little peppier but the restrained nature of the material limited the improvements. This remained a tremendously low-key mix; going lossless wasn’t going to make it more interesting.

On the other hand, the visuals gave us a nice uptick. The image seemed sharper, cleaner and more vivid. Given its age, the old DVD wasn’t bad, but the Blu-ray brought us a much more satisfying presentation.

The Blu-ray includes both the movie’s theatrical cut (1:53:43) as well as an extended version (1:57:14). The old DVD included only the longer edition, so it’s nice to finally get the theatrical presentation.

In addition to the film’s trailer, we find an audio commentary with directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly. Both sit together for this running, screen-specific look at cast and crew, sets and locations, story and characters, shooting the bowling, editing and deleted scenes, music, and related subjects.

When I first listened to this commentary in 1999, I thought it was a meandering bore. Some of those impressions remain, but I can locate more value in it now.

The negative comes from the brothers’ fondness for naming names. Sometimes it feels like they do nothing other than tell us the identities of everyone who appears on screen, most of whom appear to be friends and family. That gets old fast, and the occasional dead spots also don’t help the commentary.

When the brothers invest in the filmmaking process, though, they offer a pretty good chat. I like their thoughts about their comedy preferences/choices, and they tell us a lot about their editing/storytelling decisions. They also prove to be more self-critical than expected, as they relate what they don’t think works in the movie. Its status as annotated credit roll means the commentary becomes a chore at times, but it does give us some good info along the way.

New to the Blu-ray, Kingpins: Extra Frames with the Farrelly Brothers lasts 19 minutes, 14 seconds. In this piece, we get new comments from the Farrellys as well as archival materials from actors Woody Harrelson, Randy Quaid and Bill Murray. The participants discuss how the Farrellys got onto the project and what they liked about it, cast and performances, the movie’s reception, the Farrellys’ style of comedy, and other filmmaking thoughts. “Frames” brings us a moderately informative piece, but it seems somewhat redundant after the commentary.

Despite a mix of talented actors, Kingpin can’t overcome its own basic idiocy. The movie relies on a long series of witless gags and wears out its welcome well before it finishes. The Blu-ray offers very good picture along with mediocre audio and a couple of decent bonus features. The Blu-ray works well enough, but the film remains a witless disappointment.

To rate this film, visit the DVD review of KINGPIN