Product: Dodgeball/Borat Bonus Preview Disc (2004)
Rating: 4.0
A film that refuses to dodge away from every sports cliché
In its defense, you have to admit that "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story" embraces every cliché in the history of sports with a sense of joy. More importantly, first time writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber manages to do this without being heavy handed, which is no mean feat. He accomplishes this because since this 2004 comedy is trying to work in every cliché in the history of sports underdogs (and sports underdogs movies) it has to really move along to get them all into the film. There is no gratuitous milking of the movement in "Dodgeball," because like the sport itself, the movie sends another ball whizzing at you and it is heading for one of three places: your head, your stomach, or right for the obvious metaphor.The underdogs are the guys at Average Joe's Gym, where owner Peter La Fleur (Vince Vaughn) takes a low-key approach to the health and physical fitness of his loyal and eccentric members. This is in stark contrast to the high intensity environment across the street at Globo Gym, where White Goodman (Ben Stiller) has made narcissism an art form. La Fleur is informed by attorney Kate Veatch (Christine Taylor) that he has 30 days to come up with $50,000 or lose his gym to (wait for it) Goodman. It looks like all is lost until the gang at Average Joe's Gym discover that the American Dodgeball Association of America is having its national tournament and the winning teams gets (wait for it) $50,000.What makes this film work is that both the clichés and the absurdities (the national champs of dodgeball only get $50,000?) are taken in stride by the characters, which makes it easier for the audience to go along with it as well. Since the tournament is being covered by ESPN 8 ("The Ocho") that certainly makes it legitimate, and there are all those screaming fans and teams from around the world. While watching this movie there was both a point where my wife and I questioned the "reality" of the situation. For her it was when the young Patches O'Houlihan (Hank Azaria) explained the rules of the game and said there were only six players on a team. She took exception to that, based on personal experience no doubt, and I had to point out that he was talking about "professional" dodgeball. Then when they started playing games in the movie I took exception to the idea that a match consists of a single game, which allowed her to point out that making it two out of three or whatever would just make the movie longer. But once you start throwing red rubber balls at people it is hard to stop.The key element in "Dodgeball," strangely enough, is that of restraint. Vaughn's La Fleur is a remarkable calm and understated hero (an approach that carries over into the extras on the DVD) and even Stiller's intense portrayal of the villain is rather restrained. When these two stand toe to toe and exchange confusing insults it is even more fun then watching people get hit by dodgeballs and be sent flying. In that regard it is Justin Long as Justin who is the master of being hit and hit repeatedly to great comic effect, although when he is hit by wrenches thrown by the adult Patches O'Houlihan (Rip Torn), you really have to wince, over and over again. That is why the best approach to the film is to be like the ESPN 8 ("The Ocho") commentary tag-team of Cotton McKnight (Gary Cole) and Pepper Brooks (Jason Bateman) and take every at face value and buy into it all the way, even if everybody knows the best strategy is to have a bunch of players all throw their balls at the same target at the same time.It is not surprising that as a result of this film dodgeball leagues have sprung up all around the country. After all, as we have learned from sports films in the past, if you show it, they will play...