There's an impressive tradition of sports movies in American cinema (Bull Durham, Rocky, Hoosiers) and a markedly less impressive tradition of sports comedies (Slap Shot, Caddyshack, Major League). With the release of Dodgeball, we can chalk up yet another one in the second category.
Vince Vaughn stars as Peter Le Fleur, owner of the run-down, bankrupt Average Joe's Gym. Though Le Fleur's apartment is a mess and his bills are months overdue, he's happy with his over-age slacker lifestyle. The real problems start when White Goodman (Ben Stiller), owner of the mega-successful GloboGym franchise, buys out the second mortgage on Joe's, planning to level it to make room for an auxiliary parking ramp for his own gym, which happens to be located just across the street. With only 30 days to raise $50,000, Le Fleur and his motley crew of friends and co-workers decide to enter a professional dodgeball tournament to save their precious gym.
Dodgeball relies on a steady stream of sight gags and one-liners to carry the audience through its paper-thin plot. While there are some genuinely funny gags, much of the humor is exactly the sort of shtick we've seen Stiller do time and again. While by no means as bad as 2001's marginal Zoolander or 1999's horrible Mystery Men, the movie again features Stiller in his "manic" mode (as opposed to the nebbishy characters he has honed to perfection in films like There's Something About Mary and Meet the Parents), which is funny in short snippets but can wear thin over the course of a whole movie. The first few times we see Stiller mugging for the camera or doing his faux-macho posturing, it's mildly entertaining, but by the twentieth time, it's gets a bit tired.
Vaughn does his best to play the straight man to Stiller's raving lunatic, but he really has very little to do other than serve as a springboard for his more colorful co-star to bounce jokes off. His team fares little better, with the only real standouts being Rip Torn as crotchety team coach and dodgeball veteran Patches O'Houlihan and Alan Tudyk in a quirky role as Steve the Pirate (yes, pirate). The funniest bits come from tournament commentators Cotton McKnight (Gary Cole) and Pepper Brooks (Jason Bateman). These two make a fair go at achieving the hilarious rapport that Fred Willard and Jim Piddock honed to perfection in Best in Show. While they don't achieve that level of comic mastery, they provide plenty of laughs in a movie that needs all it can get.
Writer/director Rawson Marshall Thurber's only prior work behind the camera came in the popular Terry Tate, Office Linebacker Reebok ads that aired during the 2002 SuperBowl. Like those short spots, Dodgeball could have been a brilliant bit of comedy if it had been squeezed in to a five-minute short. As a feature-length film, the joke is stretched far too thin. Fans of low-brow comedies should find much to love here. More discerning viewers should just stay away.
Article comments
1 - Andrew Duncalfe
Too bad I didn't read this before flushing 15 bucks down the can this evening. Bleh.
2 - RJ Elliott
Well, I was going to watch this movie tonight, but instead flushed my cash down the crapper watching the hideous "Saved!"...