Hey folks, Harry here... DODGEBALL is a brilliant idea for a comedy, unfortunately from the sound of this review - they kinda just mucked up the whole thing. When I first heard about DODGEBALL with Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn - and hadn't heard anything else, I had hoped it would be a grand satire of ROLLERBALL - and you would play in a court surrounded by crowds roaring their approval, and the teams would represent nations, the game was to settle the disputes and Stiller and Vaughn would be the Gods of the Game. Alas - it seems they've put the standard lose your business, better play the game type of plotline. Sigh. I really wanted to have this movie take on epic lunacy.
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story ~ a review by Krazee-Eyez Killa
Mild Spoilers
Hey Harry. I caught an unexpected screening of Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story today inside Fox studio earlier. We were warned that the quality was going to be a little shabby (it was being broadcasted via video, the sound wasn’t completely matched, and the score was borrowed from a bunch of other movies) but I still wasn’t prepared for how thrown together the film felt. I’ve been to screenings before were the same warning was made, but never was it so distracting. To be fair, my opinion on the film might be a little skewed by the poor quality of the screening.
Anyhow, the film centers on Peter, Vince Vaughn, the head of a little known fitness gym called Averages Joes. The staff is made up a bunch of social delinquents. A gawky high school student, a man who believes he’s a pirate, a man who might be legally retarded and so on. Not one of these characters are very funny, which is Dodgeball’s biggest problem. I’ll go deeper into this in a bit.
Only a few moments into the film, Pete finds his business threatened by the eccentric owner of a much more modern fitness gym who happens to like to masturbate with a slice of pizza, White Goodman played by Ben Stiller. Goodman’s gym resembles an overlong Bally Total Fitness commercial where as Pete’s gym looks more like a garage. Goodman wants to buy Pete’s gym and turn it into a parking lot for their employees. It’s up to Pete and his gang of misfits to find a way to summon fifty grand in 30 days or else they’re all be out of a job. Through some bizarre plot contrivances they enter a Las Vegas Dodgeball competition where the grand prize just happens to be 50 grand. With the help of the always charming Christine Taylor as bank employee who might put Pete out of business if he doesn’t come up with the dough, the Average Joes set out to win the competition. Oh yeah, it turns out Goodman has assembled a team of his own to rival the Average Joes. That’s the set up and the rest of the movie unravels exactly how you imagine.
The best thing you can say about this film is Ben Stiller is very funny. Remember his character from Heavyweights? Yeah, he’s pretty much playing the same character. An over driven, egocentric dictator. Almost ever scene he’s in is funny. This is Stiller doing what he does best. This isn’t Stiller playing the tired straight man role. This is an odd, uncanny performance that almost single handedly redeems the film.
When the film centers on the Average Joes and not Stiller -- the movie falls flat. You know the feeling – when it’s dead silent inside a theater for a so-called comedy. You want to laugh so badly but just can’t. You even fake a laugh once or twice. After a while these character move past just being unfunny and become annoying. Oh yeah, Rip Torn joins them as their handicapped coach (he’s an ex Dodgeball player himself.) Boy does Rip make an ass of himself as the foul mouthed, sporadically violent coach who consistently lets lose with one liners like (“you’re about as useless as a cock flavored lollypop.”) Vince Vaughn, who has displayed that he’s one the funniest guys around in movies like Made and Old School is really dull here. Vince was not born to play the straight man. This is a role that should have been filled by Jason Biggs or would have been filled by Tom Berenger if the film was made fifteen years ago. Out of the “Average Joe” team, Christine Taylor is the only one who makes it out with some decency. She continues to be likeable leading lady.
So, we have these long boring scenes which build to what I was hoping was going to some cool Dodgeball scenes (oh yeah they play a preliminary game against a bunch of girl scouts in a scene from Billy Madison then used again in Curb Your Enthusiasm), but these scenes are pitiful. Rather than spoof the sport by making it the over the top, they play is straight. Watching the Dodgeball tournament in the equivalent of watching a bunch of third graders play. It’s literally countless shots of players throwing balls at each other, players ducking, players catching, etc. This film doesn’t lampoon Dodgeball so much as it celebrates it. Dodgeball is a twisted game. If there was anything this film should have realized it was that. The Dodgeball stadium is also very cheap. Two very funny guys, Gary Cole and Justin Bateman play announcers for the tournament. Sounds funny, right? I thought so, but like everything else in this movie it was poorly executed. No doubt Rawson Marshall Thurber is a first time director. As the film progresses the filmmakers must have realized they had a dud on their hands because they fill the conclusion with random cameos. Only one of these cameos, as a judge at the tournament, is funny at all and mostly just because it was such weird casting.
The film isn't awful. There are a few funny moments (mostly involving Stiller) but given the talent involved I was vastly disappointed. This film really does has a lot of talent involved, but only a few are able to breathe life into this film. The premise sounds promising, but very few laughs actually come from the game of Dodgeball. More jokes are centered on gross out humor (one unfortunate teenager gets trapped between one very fat teenager’s (I think it was the girl from All That) ass. Ben Stiller’s 0 for 2 so far this year in my book. How many movies does he have coming out this year? . He needs to choice his scripts a little better. With Envy on its way Stiller looks to be 0 for 3. This guy needs another Flirting with Disaster and less crap like this and Duplex.
Krazee-Eyez Killa
