Not usually so funny, and a little too often boring, but reasonably satisfying in the end, I guess

Rating: 6/10 (18 October 2008)

Although this sports comedy was released in 2004, I was introduced to it the following year. It was towards the end of my senior year of high school, in a class I was in all morning that semester. One day, for some reason, we didn't do any work, and instead spent the morning watching "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story". I recall not being very impressed with much of the film, but liking some of it. Three years and a few months later, having not seen it since then, I rented it yesterday. Now that I've seen it a second time, it's definitely clearer in my mind, but I don't think my second viewing was much different than the first at all.
Peter La Fleur owns an unpopular, rundown gym called Average Joe's, which does have a few loyal members, all with their eccentric qualities. Across the road is Globo Gym, a glamorous fitness centre run by the arrogant White Goodman, who wants to buy Average Joe's, so he can have it demolished and have a parking structure for his gym's members built in its place! In order to stop this from happening, La Fleur must come up with $50,000 within the next thirty days! He and his gym's loyal members attempt to make enough money in various ways, but unfortunately, all their attempts fail. Finally, it is discovered that they can get enough money to save Average Joe's if they win a big dodgeball tournament in Las Vegas. So, they begin to train for this tournament, but after Goodman finds out about this by spying on them, he gets together a team of extremely powerful athletes to participate in the dodgeball tournament as well, so it doesn't look like there's much hope for the Average Joes!
Like probably so many other modern comedies, some of the gags in this one are pretty lame, such as the obese cheerleader flashback, and the steroid user on the Girl Scout team. I would say the humour is pretty much mediocre for the most part, but it has its moments, such as White Goodman getting an electric shock when he touches a doughnut. One part which definitely made me laugh more than the vast majority of the movie was Goodman at the door of the house of attorney Kate Veatch, telling her about an absurd thing he just did, which was not his first pathetic attempt to win her over! The rest of that front porch sequence can be amusing as well, including Kate getting violent with White, and White's reaction. Occasionally, there are some more minor laughs. However, this is not the reason why I'm rating this movie any more than a 5/10. The reason for that is the fact that both times I've seen it, I've found the big dodgeball tournament rather suspenseful.
I've seen a number of Hollywood comedies made at some point during this decade, and I've definitely seen better than "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story", but have also seen much worse. Yes, this particular comedy can be quite juvenile at times, with certain gags it could have done without, and like I said, overall, the humour is mediocre in my opinion, but at least it's not atrocious, like some modern comedies certainly can be, and the story seemed to leave me reasonably satisfied in the end. Many people clearly like this film better than I do, and while it's certainly not one of the most popular comedies ever made, it seems to have gotten more positive feedback than negative, though I'll probably never be able to fully understand it. "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story" definitely could have been a lot funnier, but compared to certain other immature modern comedies, it's certainly not exactly a disgrace.