Review - Alley Cats Strike (2000)

      Hey guys, Chuck here. Alley Cats Strike is a 2000 sports comedy that aired on Disney Channel, and it featured the likes of Kyle Schmid, Robert Ri'chard, Kaley Cuoco, Joey Wilcote, Mimi Paley, Matt McCoy,  Daphne Maxwell Reid, and Tim Reid. 

        So, the movie tells the story of the rivaling towns of West Appleton and East Appleton, who have a yearly junior high school sports competition over a trophy called the Mighty Apple. And, in the events of the movie, the two towns are competing for the Mighty Apple for the final time,.and the winning town keeps it for good. However, as the recent basketball game was won by West Appleton sports superstar Todd McLemore, son of West Appleton mayor Jeff McLemore, the tournament is at a tie, and East Appleton has selected the tiebreaker sport: bowling. 

        This is good news for Alex Thompson and his friends Elisa, Delia, and Ken, who comprise the West Appleton Junior High bowling club, and spend their afternoons bowling at the local bowling alley owned by Alex's father Kevin. And, the four are shocked to discover that Todd is also part of the bowling club, with Todd having been signed up by his friends as a prank. 

       So, Todd joins Alex and his friends to train in bowling. But, while he struggles at first, Todd does improve... save for being able to pick up the 7-10 split. But, then again, even I had difficulty in picking up the 7-10 split back in my own bowling days. Yes, I used to bowl as a kid. And, it was a lot of fun. Anyway, while Todd slowly improves his bowling skills, he slowly draws Alex in with the popular crowd, much to the chagrin of Elisa, Delia, and Ken. However, to boost attendance, the teens decide to refurbish the bowling alley to accommodate blacklight bowling (which is a genuinely fun form of bowling), and have a party at the bowling alley. All the while, Mayor Jeff is making various bets with the mayor of East Appleton, who hires professional bowling champion Whipsaw McGraw to train the East Appleton bowling team. 

       Unfortunately, the final straw for Alex comes when the various bets, including the rights to name the new school under construction, are uncovered, and the team uniforms, which are a bland and hideous eyesore, are shown to the team. Frustrated by all of this, Alex leaves. That night, Kevin reveals to Alex that he and Mayor Jeff were friends at their sons' ages, but they had a falling out when each one blamed the other for losing a baseball game that cost the city the Mighty Apple for the year, and Alex shouldn't let a dispute ruin a friendship. Around the same time, Todd shows up with more fitting uniforms for the team with a new team name: the Alley Cats. 

       On the day of the big bowling game, Alex rejoins the team, and both West Appleton and East Appleton keep the score pretty close. But, in the final frame, Todd has a 7-10 split, which was the one pick up he could never get. So, Todd has Delia step in to substitute for him, and she uses her knowledge of physics to send a slow spinner down the lane to pick up the spare, winning the game AND the tournament for West Appleton. And, deciding that it's kinda dumb for a bowling game to determine the name of a school, Alex, Todd, and their teammates compromise and decide to name the.new school Appleton Central. 

       Alley Cats Strike is a genuinely fun Disney Channel movie. The two leads of the film, Kyle Schmid as Alex and Robert Ri'chard as Todd, were both terrific with excellent moments of character growth throughout the movie. Other performances like Kaley Cuoco as Elisa, Matt McCoy as Kevin, and Tim Reid as Jeff were also terrific. The concept of a sports tournament between two rival high schools was certainly decent, but to have bowling be the sport of choice for the tiebreaker between the schools was certainly unique. And, I like seeing movies with bowling, because its such an underrated sport on film, with more movies focusing on sports like football, soccer, baseball, basketball, and even hockey. So, to see Disney Channel produce a movie centered around bowling was genuinely refreshing to me. So, I can definitely say that Alley Cats Strike is worth the watch. 

       Alright guys, this is Chuck signing off, and I'll see you in the next review.