Masterful Cinema

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

At some point the British had decided to emulate the Americans hence started making formulaic comedies. What exactly is a "formula comedy"? It is a movie that starts off fairly okay (sometimes not even that), then gradually becomes sentimental i.e. runs out of gags, and ends in a supposedly exciting but actually utterly predictable finale devoid of jokes. Interestingly enough, the British formula comedy is usually worse than the average American one. The Brits still churn out terrific comedy material for television, but when it comes to the big screen all that potential and talent becomes a puff of mysteriously disappearing smoke.The soundtrack is typical formulaic comedy crap: sappy pop tunes alternating with elevator music.Paul Kaye tries his best with a script that is lame beyond belief. The only laugh-worthy moment in the entire movie comes very early on with the astrological-wallpaper/"I'm an astronomer" gag. I presume that if this sports comedy had been made in the States, that Adam Sandler would have been cast as Cliff Starkey: THAT'S the kind of shoddy/cliché writing we're talking about here. The fact that Vince Vaughn is in this should serve rather more than just as a warning...To see Paul Kaye at his terrific best, check out his X-rated(?) MTV series "Strutter", or his 90s character Dennis Pennis, a pre-Ali G mock U.S. journalist who ridicules celebrities by asking them insulting questions ("Anyone For Pennis?", "VIP: Very Important Pennis".)

Here is another example of a sports film trying to go down the route of comedy and, like, most of its cousins failing to be either that funny or particularly memorable. It seems strange that just over a month ago, I saw Woody Harrelson's 1996 comedy 'Kingpin' shortly after believing that there were no such films revolving around ten pin bowling but in Blackball there is a film that revolves around a sport that you could sort of forget even exists and that is Lawn Bowls. Although bowling and bowls are two completely different games yet still offer that sensation of throwing a ball down a track in order to gain you your advance to victory. This may be the only thing bowling and bowls have in common but the films Kingpin and Blackball have a lot more; and it's not pretty.I think Blackball tries to be the Happy Gilmore (the one comic sports film I actually like) of Lawn Bowls. Blackball disregards the 'spirit' and sophistication of the sport by having some lout from a small time painting job play a game his persona isn't suited for, it's the same with Happy with Golf since he was loud and aggressive and Golf is anything but. Blackball disrupts the passage of bowls by having its star Cliff Starkey (Kaye) take to the lawn to the Rocky theme tune and even has his own little 'come out' scene (similar to the way a WWE wrestler enters before a match); the film also has the odd Mexican wave at the match in which the young instigate it and the elderly shy away from early on. While this is innovative in a way since you don't associate these images with the location, it's also trying to be funny but funny it isn't. Maybe it's because I play Golf that I could laugh and enjoy what Happy Gilmore did and that's give Golf a 90 minute facelift, a change, an 'escape' but here it feels like the writer and director have just sat down and gone out of their way at a very basic to try and make bowls stick out: "Whatever happens at a bowls match, we'll just do the opposite of." The story for Blackball is also limited in more ways than one. First; its underdog from nowhere who goes on a journey 'out of water' is a little tired – the most obvious example of this is when he arrives at a London hotel and can't believe his posh surroundings: a very blatant example of how unused he is to large rooms, clean linen and a window with a view of something other than factory chimneys. Secondly, the whole drive for this film narrative-wise is: Australia versus England and it tries to exploit the sporting rivalry between the nations as much as possible for laughs that don't come. In the calendar year of 2003 when this was made; England had lost to Australia in a Davis Cup Tennis match in a pretty tame fashion; they'd beaten us 3-1 in a Football match in London, they'd successfully retained The Ashes at Cricket every time since 1987 and thumped us in the 2002/03 series round about the time of this film. Of course, since then we've beaten them in the Rugby World Cup final which was actually held in Australia and regained The Ashes in 2005 in what was, arguably, one of the greatest Cricket Test series of all time but the propaganda that possess the film is evidently pre-these victorious events and has since sort of become redundant as England have actually beaten Australia at a sport in genuinely important circumstances. I suppose what I'm trying to say is that the film is lacking atmosphere because of this.Twinned with these things that stick out, the film has a very small amount of conflict. Blackball starts off like a rocket before he is disqualified for a certain reason and that's when the film becomes a little bogged down as the hero as well as the film has to restart. His affair with a rival's daughter and its demise also takes up the bulk of the film as does is friendship with Trevor (Vegas) who he just ignores too much. It's at this point when his celebrity status acts as the main gag for the film and it doesn't work at all and a great deal of hate builds up because of Cliff's immaturity and poor social skills. You might like Blackball if you're a Lawn Bowls player who gets to see the sport you play and love get turned upside down like myself, Golf and Happy Gilmore but for the majority, Blackball will be a disappointing and unfunny film that covers too much familiar ground to really enjoy.

This was a very basic comedy/drama with good performances and enough energy to keep it interesting...well, as interesting as it CAN be, considering the subject matter.I'm not into the game featured here, but I still found the flick amusing, in spite of the local-centric nature of the setting. Adequate tension is generated during the actual event itself, to make it decently enjoyable, but what made it entirely tolerable was the likability of the characters.It was okay. There's nothing actually special about this work, yet it was (very) mildly entertaining, so it wasn't a total waste of my time.It rates a 4.0/10 from...the Fiend :.

Ok so a film about bowling is never really going to fire the imagination of the average film fan. However it's based on a true story of a young bowler who was banned for calling a member of the selection commitee a rude name. A very rude name.The bad boy of bowls is born. The film itself and the storyline is a bit contrived and predictable but the acting is first class. Johnny Vegas especially is excellent. See if you recognise one of the Aussie bowlers. A superb soundtrack as well.All in all a reasonable film. Not the best but not the worst either.