Special Coverage American Idol Fall TV Central Twilight The Must List Pop Style On The Set
  • --
  • B+
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story | 161521__dodgeball_l
GYM RAT Stiller's sleazy fitness magnate is primed to take a fall in ''Dodgeball''
Dodgeball: Tracey Bennett
Presented by Moviefone

Credits

Release Date: Jun 18, 2004; Rated: PG-13; Length: 96 Minutes; Genre: Comedy; With: Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn
B+
By Lisa Schwarzbaum
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Lisa Schwarzbaum is a film critic for EW

The truth is, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story ain't no true underdog story. If it were, Peter LaFleur (Vince Vaughn) and the scrum of losers who hang out at Average Joe's Gym would never beat the pumped-up Globo Gym clones assembled by fitness magnate White Goodman (Ben Stiller) in a Las Vegas dodgeball showdown. (For pathos, the $50,000 winner's pot is just enough to save Average Joe's from foreclosure.)

The truth is, this slap-happy send-up of the whole sniffly underdog sports-movie genre, written and directed with a change-up pitch of whizzy aggression and bouncy merriness by Rawson Marshall Thurber, is hilariously fake and rude. And thus true and tonic, if you know what I mean. Stiller once again plays a preening SOB, but there is something in the chemistry of his crazy-eyed vanity (set off by a feathered coif and an artificially inflated codpiece) in combustion with Vaughn's lower-keyed, underachiever sanity that at once aerates and focuses Stiller's pugnacity. For added combustibility, Rip Torn plays a sewer-mouthed retired dodgeball legend who returns, in a wheelchair, to coach the Average Joes into glory. Direct hit!


Posted Jun 25, 2004
  • Print
  • Del.icio.us
  • Google
  • StumbleUpon
  • Facebook
  • Digg
  • More
 

Add Your Comments

The rules: Keep it clean, and stay on the subject or we might delete your comment. If you see inappropriate language, e-mail us. You must have javascript enabled to submit a comment.
--
Change/Edit your grade
characters remaining