What are the best Bowling Movies?
Looking for the top 10 most iconic movies about bowling?
What bowling movie should you watch?
Keep reading as we have gathered exactly the information that you need!
Let’s dig into our bowling knowledge!
Are you ready?
Let’s get started!
Table of Contents
Bowling Movies
What are the bowling movies out there that you can watch?
To start with, let’s get our bowling movies list out of the way and then we’ll talk about our top pics:
- A League of Ordinary Gentlemen (2006)
- After the Ball (1956)
- Alley Cats Strike (2000)
- Atom the Amazing Zombie Killer (2012)
- Dreamer (1979)
- Grease 2 (1982)
- Gutterballs (2008)
- Kingpin (1996)
- Lars and the Real Girl (2007)
- Life in the Bowling Lane (2005)
- Racing with the Moon (1984)
- Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama (1988)
- Strike: The Greatest Bowling Story Ever Told (2014)
- Strikes and Spares (1934)
- The Big Lebowski (1988)
- The Bowling Alley-Cat (1942)
- The Deer Hunter (1978)
- The Flintstones (1994)
Top 5 Bowling Movies
Which bowling movies make our top 5 list?
Let’s find out!
Top 1: The Big Lebowski
The Big Lebowski is a bowling movie directed by Joel and Ethan Coen released in 1998.
It stars Jeff Bridges who plays Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski being a Los Angeles bowler.
The movie has an interesting twist as Jeffrey is mistaken for a millionaire having the same name as him and ends up being assaulted for that reason.
You can classify this movie as a crime comedy.
When it was first released, it did not perform as well at the box office.
However, with the passing of time, this movie has become a classic bowling alley movie.
Top 2: Dreamer
The Dreamer is another movie about bowling that was released in 1979.
This movie stars Tim Matheson, Susan Blakely and Jack Warden.
As the name of the movie suggests, Dreamer is about a young man who dreams to make it big in bowling.
He is determined to win the bowling championship and is prepared to do what it takes to make it happen.
This movie appears to have been inspired by the movie “Rocky” where Tim Matheson plays the role of a tenpin bowling prodigy, Jack Warden is his old and grumpy manager, and Susan Blakely the girlfriend.
Top 3: Kingpin
Kingpin is a fun bowling movie released in 1996 where nearly most of the movie plot is around the bowling lanes.
In this movie, Woody Harrelson and Bill Murray play an exceptional role and display great humor.
For the average person, Kingpin may not be the best move but for those who have some interest in bowling, it definitely is a solid bowling movie comedy.
Top 4: The Flintstones
The Flintstones is a cartoon that came out back in 1961.
However, bowling has played an important part in this cartoon where the Flintstones make bad rock puns.
In The Flintstones film, Fred and Barney are members of the first bowling league in this movie featuring John Goodman.
Top 5: Strikes and Spares
Strikes and Spares is a movie that was released in 1934.
This is a short feature about the game of bowling.
It featured Ray Turner, Pete Smith and the professional bowler Andy Varipapa.
In this movie, you see how to play the game of bowling and how to correctly handle a bowling ball.
Best Bowling Movies
If you want to have more selection beyond our top 5 picks, here our best bowling movie top 10 list:
- The Big Lebowski (1988)
- Dreamer (1979)
- Kingpin (1996)
- The Flintstones (1994)
- Strikes and Spares (1934)
- Life in the Bowling Lane (2005)
- Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama (1988)
- Alley Cats Strike (2000)
- A League of Ordinary Gentlemen (2006)
- Strike: The Greatest Bowling Story Ever Told (2014)
Takeaways
What is a good movie about bowling?
Are there any good bowling films you can watch alone or with the family?
Let’s look at a summary of our findings.
Bowling Movie:
Related terms
Billey Welu
Bowling gutters
Buzz Fazio
Dick Hoover
Dick Weber
Don Carter
Earl Anthony
Professional Bowlers Association
Target bowling
Tenpin bowling