A League of Ordinary Gentlemen (Christopher Browne) Rating: NNN Rating: NNN
If you can’t believe someone would try making pro bowling as popular as pro wrestling, check out this movie.
A League Of Ordinary Gentlemen narrates the passion of American professional bowling from its 1997 death at the hands of ABC programmers to its resurrection by a cartel of retired Microsoft employees and Nike admen who aim to make the PBA the next WWE.
It filters the tale through the eyes of four pros from bowling’s glorious past, including two former champions: gentlemanly physics buff Walter Ray Williams Jr. and flamboyant bad-boy Peter “Petey W.” Weber.
The story looks like it’s going to be about the imposition of white-collar interpretations on a blue-collar sport until it loops off into a “who’s going to win the championship?” arc, possibly because, aside from adding few wrestling poses, the execs don’t seem to succeed in changing bowling very much at all.
Warm, funnyish, mildly gripping. (Bloor, December 1)
