Oh so very popular!

Rating: Null/10 (4 December 2004)

I admit...Ben Stiller's popularity is a head scratcher to me. Even comedians I can't stand like Parker and Stone of South Park fame I can still see something appealing in their style. Ben Stiller to me seems kinda silly yet I admit I have enjoyed a fair number of his films. Still it's usually the rest of the cast that makes the film good. To me he's just okay and yet his films seem to reach this cult status in days where everyone is talking about them. Such is the case with Dodgeball. I've been hearing about this movie everywhere I went and how funny it was and I had to see it so I finally did and I was not disappointed.
Dodgeball is the story of two men. Peter Lafleur played by Vince Vaughn and White Goodman played by Ben Stiller. Stiller's character owns a popular, and well to do gym where people are insulted into building better bodies. Vaughn's character owns a small neighborhood gym where good friends hang out, have a good time and people can come without being judged or laughed at. Unfortunately Lafleur is too nice of a guy to make a profit off all his clients so he's in trouble financially and the bank is going to foreclose on his gym leaving it available for hostile takeover by Goodman unless he can come up with fifty thousand dollars in a month to save his gym from the evil Goodman. How is he going to do that? Dodgeball of course. Him and his gym full of out of shape rejects are going to win a national Dodgeball competition in which the top prize is...fifty thousand dollars. Surprised??
No it's not a new concept but the Dodgeball angle is different and very funny.
Vince Vaughn is one of my least favorite actors because in essence he doesn't seem like an actor at all. He's just always kinda there. He's never impressed me in his variety of roles where he seems to ride the other people's coat tails in the film. He is adequate in the lead here playing a straight faced boring character. Ben Stiller is the exact polar opposite. He's off the wall, over the top, too much to handle and not all that funny. Both of them behave as though this is an extended Saturday Night Live Skit with special guest star Vince Vaughn who is just completely amused by Stiller and his own performance.
The absolute saviours of this film are the underdogs and the cameos. Truly they make this film a shining star and a funny, watchable movie. Christine Taylor as the lead actress in the film adds a necessary boost of girl power to the film. She's funny in her own way with her one liners. Stephen Roote is downright hilarious as Gordon the King of The Hill Billesque type character we know and love. Alan Tudyk as a basket case that thinks he's a pirate, and the silently hilarious Jamal Duff as Stiller's right hand man. Rip Torn who plays the Underdogs coach, former pro dodgeballer Patches O'Houllian has some hilarious lines and is just funny to watch, probably one of the best roles in the film. Cameo's by Chuck Norris, William Shatner who is funny without trying to be, and watch for Jason Bateman's hilarious little role as the more than slightly high dodgeball announcer. If the whole football in the groin premise makes you laugh aloud, you won't be able to get enough of Dodgeball because the funniest parts are watching people get nailed with those balls and of course the numerous references to "balls" in general.
Although there is the occasional sexual reference, overall the film doesn't resort to the gross out comedy we have come to expect nowadays from comedies. It's by far not the best comedy I have ever seen but it's worth checking out for a mindless laugh. 6/10