Alley Cats Strike

Trailer—Alley Cats Strike

source: Alley Cats Strike

Coming two years after the Big Lebowski, four years after Kingpin, this is a kids attempt at cashing in the attraction of bowling. East and West Appleton have a long standing sporting rivalry that's gone on for decades. Each year they have gone up against each other in just about every sport that each has a team for, but for some reason the two schools are going to become one, meaning that this year is the last "Big Apple". The two mayors keep upping the ante over who wins, not helped by West Appletons mayor also being the father of their star player, who's helped them win at pretty much every main stream sport, until East Appleton proposes bowling and he has to team up with the losers - "Only losers bowl," - to win the big prize. Add to that, a connection between the Mayor and the bowling alley owner and a gradual change in the lead bowlers (who's also the bowling alley owners son) attitude, it's a standard Disney feel good film that fills all the tick boxes. The music is of an era, the 50's vibe adds to the relaxed vibe the losers have, while there are no chase scenes, so the camera work is pretty standard point and shoot. It took me ten minutes to realise that was Kaley Cuoco - it is two years before 8 Simple Rules - and it was funny that Mimi Paleys first acting credit was playing a young Buffy the Vampire Slayer, considering the roles Cuoco would go onto. The main characters - Kyle Schmid (Alex Thompson) and Robert Ri'chard (Todd McLemore) and basically 90's kids, even if Kyle has such an affinity with the 50's, but the dialogue is stilted at times as they try to make the premise of a bowling match being so important to a town, though as other reviews have said; the bowling technique could have done with some work, and did they actually finish the last match? A fun, very child friendly film, with a good message and obvious story line.

Teenagers, aces at bowling, but discredited at school, compete for the regional "Big Apple" trophy. The final will be decided by a high school champion in almost every sport, but who knows nothing about bowling. He will have to resolve differences and enlist the help of the "bowling gang" to win the game. Misfit teens are thrust into the spotlight when their bowling prowess lands them in the middle of an interscholastic competition. A group of hip retro teenage outsiders become involved in an interschool bowling rivalry. Interesting, initially I thought I would be more attached because it was one of those children's and teen movies, more of the same, in the "Afternoon Session" Disney style, however it fell into commonplace, with some very cute messages, but without much attachment, almost boring ...

Going through and watching all the Disney Channel original movies in order and this one was up next. Even though I am about the same age as the kids in the movie during that time, I would say nothing about this movie was relatable or realistic. We only know the most surface things about the characters and there us very little character development or conflict. It was fun seeing some familiar faces in this movie, especially a baby teen kaley cuoco (sp?)! Though her acting, along with everyone else's, was pretty dreadful. This felt super low budget and is totally a forgettable and predictable movie.

While in the early 2000s and late 90s there were many great bowling movies such as The Big Lebowski and kingpin Alley cat strike takes the Cake it's probably one of the best movies ever made about bowling I give it 10 out of 10 bowling pins down a strike.

SOME SPOILERS! This movie is about learning to understand--even accept--other peoples' point of view and working together for a common cause regardless of any remaining differences. As the movie progresses different examples of how to do this are shown, such as Alex going to a party by Todd's friends that he wouldn't normally attend, accompanying Todd to get decorations for the bowling hall, and getting a truce between his team members and Todd for the remaining days until the contest. Todd rallies his friends to revive the bowling hall. Alex and his friends learn to have a positive, winning attitude, and Todd learns about style and playing for fun without the pressure to win at all costs, and yielding to a better performer when it counts. One great example that might get overlooked occurs about twenty minutes from the beginning: in the bowling hall Todd mentions the rumour that Alex got his clothes in the alley behind the hall. Instead of getting mad, Alex handles this with humor, poking even more fun at himself, saying he got them from a <catalog> he found in the alley, and Todd's "Whatever..." shows he gets the humor, and the confrontation is defused, rather than escalating. Reality check: it's true that this only works if the accuser accepts the humor, but when it works you can feel the reduction in tension. As Dexter says in "The Cure" (ties for #1 with "On Golden Pond" in my list), "It's worth a try."

Next on the Disney Plus run though, a 2000 made for TV movie "Alley Cats Strike". I approached it hoping for a MST3K style experience to mock, but unfortunately it was just "mostly rubbish" as opposed to entertainingly awful. Two high schools are about to be combined into one, so this year marks the last time that the rivals will compete for the "Mighty Apple" trophy. Having arrived at a tie, the rules determine that 10 pin bowling will be the deciding sport. West Appleton's school team is made up of Alex Thompson (Kyle Schmid) and his friends, who eschew high school popularity in favour of ironic appreciation of the retro 50's vibe of his fathers bowling alley. But the new profile, and the inclusion of team Captain Todd McLemore (Robert Ri'chard) in their circle has Alex questioning who he is. Even for a Disney TV movie, the performances here are pretty rubbish. Though many of them are still working, there's a terrible stagey feel about almost all the kids. They are, admittedly, not helped by some truly awful ADR work that plagues the film. There are two actors I recognised in this; perennial good guy Matt McCoy plays Alex's father - the owner of the struggling bowling alley that he and his friends frequent. But, perhaps the most interesting reason to watch it, a young Kaley Cuoco plays Elisa, one of Alex's friends and another bowling aficionado. Interesting as though it is, there isn't really anything in her performance that I thought singled her out for stardom in the future. It's a run of the mill teenage sports movie, that doesn't really attempt anything too interesting or exciting and there's not really much to recommend it for.

I guess this movie didn't aim to perfectly accurately portray the sport of bowling, but seriously, it could've done a lot better. I did like the school scenes, as they're totally on the spot. Students just don't see bowling as a sport anymore. After watching the bowling scenes, I'm thinking "no wonder competitive bowling gets so little acknowledgment! This movie is totally unrealistic!" Instead of giving in to demands from young people, they should be marketing bowling at its most professional level, to draw people in THAT direction, and not vice versa. That's the only way to make seriously bowlers, which will do a lot of good for this declining sport. If they had shown that bowling takes a lot of finesse and skill, and endurance and consistency, then maybe those schoolkids would accept it more from the beginning. Instead all it talks about is modernizing, and making it "fun". Putting laser lights and fog machines and loud music undermines the integrity of "real" bowling. I sure wouldn't go there!

My favorite Disney channel movie. It's completely cheesy, but it's from my childhood and I don't care to love the obvious and trendy movies of the time. This is easily my favorite movie from the era... I've seen it more than a couple dozen times