I wish someone would pay me money to make films with my friends!

Rating: 7/10 (14 March 2006)

In Australia, we called it poison ball in primary school, and I loved it. Well, in the US it's called Dodgeball, it's growing in popularity and it's now the backdrop for another comedy "Brat Pack" feature.
Vince Vaughan (Swingers) is Peter La Fleur, owner of cash-strapped Average Joe's gym  a gym for "average Joes". But the body-beautiful owner of Globo Gym, White Goodman (Ben Stiller) is moving in for a takeover. Until Peter and his buddies form a rag-tag team to compete at the Las Vegas Dodgeball championships for a $50,000 prize.
For most of its 92 minutes, Dodgeball is a hilarious homage cum parody of underdog sporting films. It's the first feature from writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber, who gave us Terry Tate, Office Linebacker.
There's some hilarious supporting characters  including Alan Tudyk (I Robot) as a pirate, and Missi Pyle as a scary Romanian Dodgeball champion. The comedy is rapid-fire and sometimes shocking  "if you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball", says coach Rip Torn to the team. And there are some great cameos, including David Hasselhoff as an irate German coach.
Unfortunately, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story does "drop the ball" towards the end and get just too corny for its own good. The scene where Vaughan is motivated by cycling star and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong was very schmaltzy, perhaps because its status as parody was unclear. Yet, if you're looking for a film where laughter will be torn from you, submit to Dodgeball. The first half of the film is worth it.