Funniest Sports Comedy since BASEketball (and, luckily, in that comedic tradition)

Rating: 7/10 (20 June 2004)

One of the things that debut filmmaker Rawson Marshall Thurber gets right at the start of Dodgeball, and runs with for the whole length of the film, is that if you're making a film out of this story (that includes the a-typical story and characters, in a comedy genre or otherwise) there's got to be a laugh a minute, literally. And, amazingly, Thurbert pulls it off, along with a great ensemble cast headed by Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn. Because there is also a constant urge to make fun of anything, that nothing is out of bounds, disbelief is completely suspended, and Thurber reaches (credible) ZAZ comedy territory.
Main baseline: Stiller and Vaughn trade places from March's Starsky and Hutch, as Stiller plays the tyrannical, egocentric head of Globo-Gym, which has been the monopolizer of physical fitness in the town. Vaughn runs Average Joe's, a gym where the only people who work out are the ones who work there. When Stiller bids to take over Vaughn's place, they fight back with a Dodgeball tournament with a prize enough to save Average Joe's.

The story's just an excuse, anyway, as was the story for BASEketball or Airplane. It's an excuse, so to speak, to let Stiller run wild with the persona he creates for White Goodman. It's an original performance, even if one wonders if he played a character with these kind of qualities before on his show. And Vaughn, as well as the assortment of supporting actors (Christine Taylor, Alan Tudyk, Stephen Root, Justin Long, Joel Moore, and especially Rip Torn), contribute a lot to the success of the laughs. They're relying on certain cliches, but they're the kind of cliches you can't take a bit seriously. There are also a good deal of (surprise) cameos by the likes of William Shatner, Hank Azaria, Chuck Norris, and Lance Armstrong that sneak up and bring some of the funniest parts of the film. It's a good time, unless this just isn't your kind of movie. Between A- and B+