Funny on the Fringe

Rating: 8/10 (12 August 2004)

Making, much less seeing "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story" is bizarre, beyond the fringe of the most remote element in popular culture. The fact that the movie title includes a clarification that distinguishes it from perhaps the "other" Dodgeball movie is both ridiculous and unsettling. That being said, Writer and Director Rawson Marshall Thurber's "Dodgeball" is very stupid, and extremely funny. Vince Vaughn as Average Joe's Gym owner, Peter La Fleur, emerges as today's most talented comic straight man. This year Vaughn has appeared in smaller comic roles in such movies as "Starsky and Hutch" and "Anchorman". Vaughn has a cool and ease about him, always playing insightful in the midst of brain dead chaos. Dodgeball's world class stupidity is embodied in Peter's crew. Its paragon of stupid is White Goodman, owner of the rival Globo Gym. As played by Ben Stiller, White Goodman is dumber than a post. On a certain level, one has to admire Stiller's bold performance which is so over the top, that you can virtually hear the brain cells dying in White Goodman's head. Not only is White beyond the realm of stupid, he is also arrogant and completely self-absorbed. Yes, he is perhaps the most annoyingly funny character in all of movie-dom. In a clueless White attempt to seduce, Kate Veatch (cute and smart Christine Taylor), he asks her if she is okay. She responds, "I just threw up in my mouth... a little." Whoa. Kate is the bank auditor assigned to review Average Joe's Gym's financials. The gym is in foreclosure. White makes a hostile takeover attempt for Average Joe's, and for Kate. Kate, however is sympathetic to Peter, though everyone in Average Joe's think she is a lesbian. Go figure.
Where White's Globo Gym is for the "beautiful" people, Peter's Average Joe's Gym is not. Not at all. Peter asks high school member Justin (charming and geeky Justin Long), "Wait, so you want to join the cheer leading squad so people don't think you're a loser?" Peter's members are not an athletically inspired group. Okay, they are a bunch of pathetic losers-- athletically and socially. It is so absurd, that one of the guys thinks he's a pirate which goes unnoticed by most of the group. Peter must raise $50,000 or lose his gym to foreclosure, and eventually to Globo Gym. Fortunately, one of the guys, Gordon (very funny Stephen Root from "Office Space"), discovers in his issue of "Obscure Sports Journal" that they could earn the money by winning the Dodgeball Tournament in Las Vegas.
After gaining a tournament seeding following a scandalous Girl Scouts match, the boys enroll legendary Dodgeball coach Patches O'Houlihan (Rip Torn). Patches is apparently this Dodgeball Yoda in a wheelchair, uttering such sage advice as "If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball." Kate (Taylor) demonstrates a special talent, and joins the team in their quest for Dodgeball glory.
My only familiarity with Dodgeball: The Game was as a grade schooler during recess and P.E. Then I saw Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn promoting "Dodgeball" on MTV providing color commentary at a Dodgeball Tournament. I was unaware of this whole sports culture. So when Thurber adds the winning combination of Gary Cole and Jason Bateman as Dodgeball color commentators, Cotton McKnight and Pepper Brooks, on ESPN8 (the Ocho) the effect is no longer absurd. It becomes surreal.
"Dodgeball" unexpectedly has the most funny inspiring speech I can remember from a movie. At the emotional arc of the movie, Lance Armstrong playing himself shares with Peter (Vaughn) that being diagnosed with brain, lung and testicular cancer drove him to win 5 Tour de Frances (at that time). He then asks Peter, "So what are you dying of...?" Classic. Then again Thurber's "Dodgeball" is full of surprises. The biggest one is that this stupid story is truly funny, for the most part clever, and has a unique charm. Even amidst the sometimes bottom of the barrel scraping humor, the movie has a genuine fondness for it's cast of lovable losers. We all pull for Peter and his team to reclaim the greatness deep inside themselves... buried very, very deep inside.