8 bowling movies worth watching

Bowling has been turning up on screen for decades, sometimes as the sport a whole plot turns on, sometimes as one long scene at the end of a lane. These eight films all put bowling in front of the camera rather than just in the title.

1. The Big Lebowski (1998)

Written by Ethan and Joel Coen and directed by Joel Coen, this crime comedy takes its shape from The Big Sleep and other noir stories. Jeff Bridges plays Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski, whose search for compensation after his rug is ruined in a case of mistaken identity pulls him into a kidnapping plot. Bowling is what he keeps coming back to: he spends his time on the lanes with his close friends Walter Sobchak and Donny, played by John Goodman and Steve Buscemi. The film was only middling successful at the box office on its first release, then grew into a highly quoted cult classic and was selected for the National Film Registry in 2014.

2. Kingpin (1996)

Peter and Bobby Farrelly directed this comedy, which stars Woody Harrelson as Roy Munson, a once-talented bowler whose career has collapsed. Randy Quaid plays Ishmael, Vanessa Angel plays Claudia, Bill Murray plays Ernie McCracken and Chris Elliott appears as the gambler. Reviewers at the time split hard: The New York Times called it a mean-spirited, anything-for-a-laugh road movie, while the Los Angeles Times found it "too funny, too knowing" to write off.

3. Dreamer (1979)

Noel Nosseck's drama follows an optimistic young athlete nicknamed Dreamer, played by Tim Matheson, who works at a bowling alley in a small Midwestern town and wants to become a champion. Susan Blakely and Jack Warden co-star. After winning a regional tournament he talks officials into letting him enter the national championship, and he gets there despite a thumb injury and the death of the former pro who trained him. The production had real credentials behind it: Hall of Fame bowler Dick Weber plays Dreamer's opponent, Weber's son Richard Weber, Jr. served as technical adviser and coached Matheson for two weeks before filming, and the Grand Championship scenes were shot at Dick Weber Lanes in St. Louis.

4. Alley Cats Strike! (2000)

This Disney Channel Original Movie, directed by Rod Daniel, premiered on March 18, 2000 and stars Kyle Schmid, Robert Ri'chard, Kaley Cuoco, Mimi Paley and Joey Wilcots. Four bowling-loving outcasts at West Appleton Middle School are pushed into the spotlight when the annual interschool competition ends in a tie and bowling is chosen to break it. The catch is that the most popular athlete in school has to join the team, and he has never bowled.

5. Greedy (1994)

Directed by Jonathan Lynn and written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, Greedy stars Michael J. Fox as Daniel McTeague, a professional bowler pulled back into his relatives' long campaign for the fortune of wealthy Uncle Joe, played by Kirk Douglas. Bowling is more than one gag here: the film shows Daniel bowling, and there is a bowling alley he would invest in if he got the chance. Reviews were mixed. The Los Angeles Times called it a "wildly uneven satire"; The New York Times wrote that Fox and Douglas "work well together even when the material shows its maudlin side."

6. Buffalo '66 (1998)

Vincent Gallo directed Buffalo '66 and stars as Billy Brown, who is being released from prison when we first see him; he co-wrote the screenplay with Alison Bagnall. Billy takes Layla, played by Christina Ricci, to a local bowling alley, where he bowls and she performs a tap-dance routine on the hardwood while a spotlight follows her.

7. Uncle Buck (1989)

John Hughes wrote and directed this comedy, with John Candy in the lead as the relative called in to watch the children only after every friend and neighbor has proved unavailable. Bowling is not the main plot, but the film includes a bowling-alley sequence. AFI records that the first day of shooting took place at the Windy City Bowling Alley in Cicero, Illinois.

8. Split (2016)

This is the South Korean Split, not M. Night Shyamalan's film, which Universal dates to 2017 and describes as a kidnapping thriller. Choi Kook-hee's film, released in November 2016, is built on bowling. Cheol-jong was once a promising bowler and now drifts through the betting world of the sport; to pay off a debt to an enemy known as Toad, he and his gambling broker Hee-jin struggle through games on the bowling lanes. They meet Young-hoon, an autistic young man with a natural gift for the game, and a run of wins draws them into a dangerous match with a bowling tycoon. Yoo Ji-tae, Lee Jung-hyun, Lee Da-wit and Chung Sung-hwa lead the cast.

Beyond the screen

Bowling plays a different role in each of these films. In Dreamer, Alley Cats Strike! and Split, the plot turns on the sport. In Greedy, Daniel is a professional bowler; in Kingpin, Roy's bowling career has collapsed. The Big Lebowski repeatedly returns to the lanes as a social setting, Buffalo '66 stages a bowling-and-tap-dance sequence there, and Uncle Buck includes a bowling-alley sequence whose filming location AFI documents. If one of the films sends you to the lanes, read Why Bowling Is the Perfect First Date.

Grab your popcorn, lace up your rental shoes, and enjoy the show.