Come late, leave early; only the second act is worth watching.

Rating: Null/10 (2 July 2004)

Veteran character actor Rip Torn is the only reason I was able to get through this 'dumb and dumber' Ben Stiller 'comedy.' Torn appears at the beginning of the second act as wheelchair-bound Patches O'Houlihan, former world champion Dodgeball player, enlisted to coach a rag-tag team of neophytes, intent on winning a big Las Vegas tournament. When O'Houlihan begins throwing plumber's wrenches at the out-of-shape players as a training exercise, the laughs are huge and genuine. Unfortunately, the screenplay can't sustain the hilarity, and the movie dissolves into as routine an underdog sports flick as you have ever seen. The 'bad news bears' on a Dodgeball court.
Peter La Fleur (Vince Vaughn) is the lovable but inept operator of a small neighborhood gym. He is threatened with annihilation by White Goodman (Stiller), the egomaniacal but insecure CEO of a state-of-the-art health and fitness empire, with a location just across the street. Can Peter and his quirky band of misfit members find a way to raise $50-thousand in 30 days, or will Average Joe's Gym fall to the wrecker's ball and become a parking garage for Globo Gym's members? The answer is in winning the $50-thousand prize in a Dodgeball tourney.
This is the first feature from 29-year-old writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber. How he got his screenplay before Stiller and his band of co-producers is unknown to me, and how he managed to write a deal that allowed him to direct is more of a mystery. But he lived through it, and will probably become the next Tom Shadyak (whose directorial debut was 'Ace Ventura, Pet Detective'). Technically, his coverage was pitifully weak, which didn't help the comedy. But he got to work with enough veterans of this kind of low humor that he will be stronger on the inevitable 'Dodgeball 2.' From a critical standpoint, I think this is Stiller's fourth comedy turkey this year, but he must be pleasing someone; 'Along Came Polly' and 'Starsky and Hutch' both made money, as will this; only 'Envy' tanked.
Sometimes I think writing drek such as 'Dodgeball' may be easier than writing about it. It certainly is more lucrative.