Review: Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
June 28, 2004; Regal Falmouth #2
* * * ¼ (out of four)
There have only been a handful of people in the world who can really pull off slapstick comedy correctly. Jackie Chan can do it in his unique style; Charlie Chaplin was excellent in his prime; Jim Carrey’s elasticity lends to the form well; and then, of course, there are the Stooges. The key is striking a balance between the pain inflicted and the seriousness of the action. Too goofy, and it’s not at all believable; too serious, and it’s just watching someone get beat up. Dodgeball consistently hits the happy medium, which makes this super-light comedy all sorts of fun to watch.
… and there’s a pirate…
It follows Peter La Fleur (Vince Vaughn), the owner of a small gym for the common man, as he tries to raise enough money to save his establishment. The beautiful and sympathetic banker (Christine Taylor) informs him that if he can’t pay off his $50K mortgage, his gym will be bought by White Goodman (Ben Stiller), owner of mega conglomerate Globo Gym. His only alternative, it seems, is to enter into the Las Vegas dodgeball tournament, where the winning team will take home a coincidental $50,000. Leading a ragtag group of his gym’s regulars – including a man who thinks he is a pirate (Alan Tudyk) – La Fleur heads to Vegas to preserve the little man’s ability to work out.
From first glance, this movie can’t help but be fun. It’s a movie based around the premise of grown men playing dodgeball. This is just silly. But Dodgeball is able to go beyond that by plotting the film out as a decent satire of inspirational sports movies (re: Remember the Titans, Any Given Sunday, The Rookie, etc.). Suddenly playing dodgeball becomes a life-or-death situation, and while one may bite for football… no. This is downright amusing. The satire is furthered by some of the best sports-on-film in quite awhile during the dodgeball tournament scenes, commentary included. The play-by-play provided by Jason Bateman and Gary Cole is priceless because it tries to build the tension and pressure of the situation… while playing dodgeball…
Even beyond that, there are laughs to be had. Alan Tudyk’s aforementioned pirate is always fun, there’s some pretty fun stuff between Vaughn, Taylor, and Stiller, the training scenes with Rip Torn are priceless, and there are some very short, very satisfying cameos that come out of nowhere and leave you wondering if you really saw what or who you thought you did.
The negative here is Stiller. Compared to the rest of the cast, he’s just a little bit too over the top. At least everyone else exists in some semblance of the real world, albeit a dodgeball-crazed one; Stiller’s White is much more of a cartoon character than a real human, and here that serves to be a bit distracting. Even still, he provides one of the most worthwhile end credit extras to come along in a long time.
Dodgeball is just fun; silly, silly fun that was written well enough to rise above the absurdity of the topic and actually make a worthwhile movie out of a childhood game. Well done.
June 28, 2004; Regal Falmouth #2
* * * ¼ (out of four)
There have only been a handful of people in the world who can really pull off slapstick comedy correctly. Jackie Chan can do it in his unique style; Charlie Chaplin was excellent in his prime; Jim Carrey’s elasticity lends to the form well; and then, of course, there are the Stooges. The key is striking a balance between the pain inflicted and the seriousness of the action. Too goofy, and it’s not at all believable; too serious, and it’s just watching someone get beat up. Dodgeball consistently hits the happy medium, which makes this super-light comedy all sorts of fun to watch.
… and there’s a pirate…
It follows Peter La Fleur (Vince Vaughn), the owner of a small gym for the common man, as he tries to raise enough money to save his establishment. The beautiful and sympathetic banker (Christine Taylor) informs him that if he can’t pay off his $50K mortgage, his gym will be bought by White Goodman (Ben Stiller), owner of mega conglomerate Globo Gym. His only alternative, it seems, is to enter into the Las Vegas dodgeball tournament, where the winning team will take home a coincidental $50,000. Leading a ragtag group of his gym’s regulars – including a man who thinks he is a pirate (Alan Tudyk) – La Fleur heads to Vegas to preserve the little man’s ability to work out.
From first glance, this movie can’t help but be fun. It’s a movie based around the premise of grown men playing dodgeball. This is just silly. But Dodgeball is able to go beyond that by plotting the film out as a decent satire of inspirational sports movies (re: Remember the Titans, Any Given Sunday, The Rookie, etc.). Suddenly playing dodgeball becomes a life-or-death situation, and while one may bite for football… no. This is downright amusing. The satire is furthered by some of the best sports-on-film in quite awhile during the dodgeball tournament scenes, commentary included. The play-by-play provided by Jason Bateman and Gary Cole is priceless because it tries to build the tension and pressure of the situation… while playing dodgeball…
Even beyond that, there are laughs to be had. Alan Tudyk’s aforementioned pirate is always fun, there’s some pretty fun stuff between Vaughn, Taylor, and Stiller, the training scenes with Rip Torn are priceless, and there are some very short, very satisfying cameos that come out of nowhere and leave you wondering if you really saw what or who you thought you did.
The negative here is Stiller. Compared to the rest of the cast, he’s just a little bit too over the top. At least everyone else exists in some semblance of the real world, albeit a dodgeball-crazed one; Stiller’s White is much more of a cartoon character than a real human, and here that serves to be a bit distracting. Even still, he provides one of the most worthwhile end credit extras to come along in a long time.
Dodgeball is just fun; silly, silly fun that was written well enough to rise above the absurdity of the topic and actually make a worthwhile movie out of a childhood game. Well done.
posted by Matt S. at
7:59 PM
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