Poor, even by its own low standards

Rating: 3/10 (5 May 2006)

Dodgeball is not supposed to be high art. Its supposed to be dumb, but funny. Alas, it's mostly just dumb. While there are a few funny moments, I couldn't help thinking throughout the whole thing just how bad the characterizations were. Stiller, arguably the funniest, does a character that is basically a nastier version of his Derek Zoolander character, but far, far less funny. Vince Vaughn basically mopes throughout the whole movie, and for the life of me I can't understand why I should even know his name. The supporting characters should have arguably been the highlight of the movie - funny, memorable, lovable, etc. Instead, they are all barely memorable and scarecely believable hangers on, each actor hoping to coat tails of one of the others' successful characters. Even the pirate is just not funny, and for the life of me, I don't understand how they could have missed with a character like that, but they did. Badly.