Movies featuring bowling : "Big Lebowski" and "Kingpin"

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Starting with 1996's "Kingpin" featuring Randy Quaid, Woody Harrelson, and Billy Murray. This movie takes me back to my teen years. We watched this movie multiple times in the theater when it was released. It was a hot summer that year and we didn't have air conditioning. But it was alright because it was an enjoyable movie. Harrelson plays a young and promising bowler - who hits some rough luck on his way to bowl on a competitive tour. Enter Bill Murray - a slick and sleezy bowler and con man. Harrelson needs money, bad - and Murray proposes that the two pull a ruse - pose as drunken salesmen and bowl for money at local lanes. When the ruse goes bad - Murray abandons Harrelson - the latter of which loses his bowling hand and must wear a prosthetic. Many years pass and Harrelson has become washed up and a quasi-con man himself. The fun begins when he catches Quaid's character - an Amish man - playing hooky from the Amish life - and bowling. Quaid is quite the bowler but very uninterested in bowling for money that Harrelson wants him to do. After trying to pose as Amish - Harrelson finally gets through to Quaid, once Quaid realizes that he can use the money to help out the Amish community. The pair begin on an adventure - As Harrelson teaches Quaid about life outside the Amish, and Quaid teaches Harrelson about being a decent person. Up next "The Big Lebowski" from 1998 featuring John Goodman, Jeff Bridges, Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore and Tara Reid Oh - let's not forget Sam Elliot, either. We are introduced to the "Dude" (Bridges) whose name is actually Jeff Lebowski. The dude is an unemployed , middle aged philosopher/pacifist who fills his days with smoking, bowling, and hanging out with his circle of friends. It's all fairly ideal - until 2 thugs burst in his apartment demanding money for a debt Dude doesn't know a thing about. "Isn't this guy supposed to be a millionaire" inquires one of the thugs... as the second thug relieves himself on Dude's rug. Dude decides to track down the other Jeff Lebowski. The other Jeff Lebowski is a millionaire , and the dude decides that the other Lebowski should replace Dude's rug, since it was the "big" Lebowski whose rug the thugs meant to pee on. And it goes from there. When Big Lebowski's wife gets kidnapped, Big Lebowski reaches out to Dude to be the bagman for the ransom money. Dude brings his friend, Walter (Goodman) a good hearted but very outspoken . opinionated man, along with. Walter's plan is to throw out a false "ringer" and keep the ransom money, since Walter figures that Big Lebowski's wife "kidnapped herself". The hijinx continue and dude finds himself intermingled between 4 different groups involved one way or another with the Big Lebowski. I highly recommend either movie for some laughs. Here's a trailer that a film student edited about the "Big Lebowski"