at least better then Rollerball, just not as funny

Rating: 4/10 (12 January 2005)

Vince Vaughn leads a group of assorted misfits into a dodgeball tournament to save his gym from being bought by Ben Stiller's gym franchise. Well leads is to strong a word, as Vince just seems to go with the flow throughout the film. Are we that needy for good comedies that we elevate a below-average one into the status of 'mordern day classic'?? Apparently so as many of the people I know sung it's high praises when this came out. The truth is, this is nowhere near as funny as either "Old School" OR "Bad Santa" and the only laughs to be had come from not Stiller nor Vaughn, but from Rip Torn who steals every single scene he has in the movie as wheelchair-bound Patrick O'houlihan. Without him "Dodgeball" would have been out in the preliminaries.
My Grade: C-
DVD Extras: Commentary with Rawson Thurber, Ben Stiller, and Vince Vaughn; 7 deleted scenes; Training for Dodgeball featurette; Anatomy of a hit featurette; Justin Long: A study in ham and chess featurette; go for the gold featurette; gag reel; 2 theatrical trailers; Trailers for season 1 of "Arrested Development" and "the Ringer