Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
Also known as "Dodgeball"
Grab life by the ball.
Starring: Vince Vaughn, Christine Taylor, Ben Stiller, Rip Torn, Justin Long, Stephen Root, Joel Moore, Chris Williams, Alan Tudyk, Missi Pyle, Jamal Duff, Gary Cole, Jason Bateman, Hank Azaria, Al Kaplon
Director: Rawson Marshall Thurber
Running Time: 92 minutes
US MPAA rating: PG-13UK BBFC rating: 12a
Comedy
If you have seen one American film about sport (or dancing, or pretty much anything related to competitiveness), you have seen them all, because in these films, unlike in real sports, the code is always observed and the rules are never broken. There MUST be an underdog, that underdog MUST have some kind of rivalry with the opposing team/player that is personal as well as professional, and the underdog MUST win against all odds. The sports film formula, you see, is there to instil no lesser ideology than the American dream itself, whereby if you are only able to show true grit and determination, there is nothing you cannot achieve, and everyone's a winner, baby (apart from the losers you just wiped the floor with, of course).
Rawson Marshall Thurber's 'Dodgeball: A True Under Dog Story' takes all these big dumb sports clichés and turns them into a big dumb comedy. A run-down gym called Average Joe's is going to be seized by the banks unless its owner, amiable slacker Peter La Fleur (Vince Vaughan), can come up with $50,000 in a month - and White Goodman (Ben Stiller), vain owner of the corporate 'Globo-Gym' across the street, is set on appropriating it into his fascistic sports empire. So Peter's no-hoper regulars, including a grown man (Alan Tudyk) who thinks he is a pirate ("Gar, Joe's be the only place for Steve"), decide on the spur of the moment to form a dodgeball team (even though they have never played before) and to play in the national competition at Las Vegas, where the prize money just so happens to be $50,000. White quickly forms a rival team, and it seems that Peter and his friends, despite being helped by wheelchair-bound coach Patches O'Houlihan (Rip Torn) and fast-throwing lawyer/love interest Kate (Christine Taylor), cannot possibly win - which of course means that they MUST...
Described at one point in the film as a game that separates "the awkwardly feminine from the possibly Canadian", dodgeball involves trying to pelt your opponents with a hard ball rather than letting them evade or catch it - in other words, it is a hit-and-miss affair, much like the comedy in this film. Just about every kind of humour imaginable is on show - there is parody (especially in White's cheaply glossy infomercials and the dodgeball commentators' inconsequential chatter), gross-out, innuendo, madcap surrealism, fat-jokes, postmodernism (David Hasselhoff as the German team's coach, William Shatner as the dodgeball chancellor, and Chuck Norris as, um, himself), even occasional verbal wit - and of course the endless slapstick possibilities raised by the sight of adults being hit hard by flying objects. The problem is, not all of it is actually funny, and it is difficult to escape the feeling that the real sport being played here is less dodgeball, and more shooting at fish in a barrel.
Vince Vaughn is just the right mixture of snide and lovable, making for a charismatically low-key hero, but Ben Stiller, with his handlebar moustache, big-hair and inflatable underpants, plays his rôle as though the only prize he wants to win is for best ham, testing the viewer's patience beyond endurance. In this year alone Stiller has appeared in
It's Got: "A David and Goliath story truer than the Bible itself".
It Needs: Certainly not more jokes, but much sharper ones.
Alternatives: Kingpin
Summary: In this goofball sportsfilm spoof there is something for everyone to laugh at - but a few too many cringeworthy own-goals.
External Links
Official Web Site
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story at the IMDB
Comments11 Comments |
| I have to agree with this review. The script seems rushed and not developed enough. Most jokes weren't funny. As we have already seen them in previous movies the both Ben Still and Vince Vaughn have starred in. I was expecting a far funnier film from the likes of Ben, but I think it will take a carefully scripted and planned film to beat out his funniest movie to date, Zoolander. I just hope Ben Stiller doesn't take the Adam Sandler road of his first few movies being funny, then fading out and just becoming feature films for kids and the dim witted. |
| Comment by:- Melo | | 05 September 2004 | ip: logged |
| I thpught the film was amazingly funnie.if ur a stoner ur'll love this film.its packed with comedy.And steve the pirate.FANTASTIC.this film is a must see. |
| Comment by:- spydaman | www.geocities.com/markhollaway... | 07 September 2004 | ip: logged |
| even more funnier the second time |
| Comment by:- Mr.Jim-Bob | don't have one | 07 September 2004 | ip: logged |
| Sorry Jim Bob it was even funnier the 5th time, thats how much I loved this film! |
| Comment by:- Lorraine | | 21 September 2004 | ip: logged |
| Have to agree, the second time around in the UK after seeing it in the US 6 months prior was brilliant. I've even watched a snide copy of it at my mates and do intend on going out buying it or copying my mates copy :-S! lol. I've told people this is an excellent film! The funniest of this years up to now. Mr. Jokey Joke Maker |
| Comment by:- Road Hog Mad | www.fruitforums.com | 27 September 2004 | ip: logged |
| A very funny film indeed. You only need popcorn and nothing else to enjoy this movie. Ben is excellent but Vince Vaughn seemed like a lazy actor playing himself. Felt guilty at seeing adults being run over by cars or girls smashed onto floor by balls and laughing at the same time! |
| Comment by:- Alex Vassallo | | 11 October 2004 | ip: logged |
| **** you melo. this movie is the ****. |
| Comment by:- ron burgandy | | 28 October 2004 | ip: logged |
| melo loves poop shoots |
| Comment by:- chet stedman | | 28 October 2004 | ip: logged |
| Gar Steve the the Pirate be the greaest character. True as the North star that be. |
| Comment by:- Inez Roundtree | | 14 December 2004 | ip: logged |
| This movie rocked. I can't believe you didn't find the jokes funny? ESPN 8: The Ocho? That's freaking hilarious. And the Lance Armstrong scene killed me. BUt funniest of all is Ben Stiller and how he perfectly played the over-xealous fitness gym owner. Everyone has seen a "Globo Gym" before and knows how ridiculous some of these places can be. |
| Comment by:- Joe Piscopo | | 20 December 2004 | ip: logged |
| i loved this movie. people who hate it probably more tasteful, but i'm not tasteful, i'm a dork, so i LOVED it!!! |
| Comment by:- laughy laugh | | 30 December 2004 | ip: logged |
