“The Gutter” is the kind of comedy you’d probably find on Cable TV at 1am. It has that spirit. You flip through the channels and go, “What is this goofy, absurd sports comedy?” It’s wild, outrageous, random and ridiculous… but I stuck with it, and it’s far from the worst movie experience of 2024.
There are a number of sections where the jokes don’t work, and the amount of material thrown at us is high — and kind of relentless. But I laughed a decent amount while watching “The Gutter”, which stars Shameik Moore (the voice of Miles Morales) as Walt. He’s got a new job at a bowling alley, but it’s soon going to close, unless it gets a few hundred thousand dollars.
To save the alley, Walt teams-up with new friend Skunk (“The Good Place”‘s D’Arcy Carden) to compete in bowling competitions across the country. One of the fiercest competitors is Linda Curson (Susan Sarandon) — the vet… the pro… who comes out of retirement to take him on in various matches. Paul Reiser does a pretty good job in the TV commentator role — some sharp one-liners (though he’s in the film a bit too much).
“The Gutter” isn’t afraid to make fun of pretty much everybody, but the tone is light. I think Yassir and Isaiah Lester know that they’re poking fun at sports movies, especially with the intentional cuts to close-ups of strikes (even if it doesn’t look like the actors are going to knock down all 10 pins). If you look at this film through that lens, then it’s not a complete turkey.
LCJ GRADE: C
Running Time: 92 min.