Product: Dodgeball/Borat Bonus Preview Disc (2004)
Rating: 3.0
FUNNY BUT YOU'VE SEEN IT BEFORE
Dodgeball is nothing new when it comes to its plot. It's been one of the most commonly used plots over the past 25 years or so with movies like The Bad News Bears, Major League, Mighty Ducks, and Necessary Roughness. Basically a group of losers comes together to win the big game and save the day. In this case Peter (Vince Vaughn) owns a run down old gym called "Average Joes". He's behind on all his bills and hasn't collected membership dues in over a year. He needs to come up with $50,000 in a month to save the gym from being taken over by his rival across the street Globo Gym.Globo Gym is run by White Goodman (Stiller) a blow-dryer headed, Tony Little-like obnoxious egomaniac. The bank brings in a tax attorney kate (Christine Taylor) to go over Average Joe's financial records and to fight off the sleazy Goodman who is constantly hitting on her.To save the Gym, Peter and his rag-tag group of gym misfits decide to enter a dodgeball tournament where the top prize is, of course, $50,000. Problem is the group has no idea how to play the game and little talent until an ancient doggeball coach, Patches O'hoolihan (Rip Torn) comes in as their mentor. Well you can pretty much guess the story from here, Right? No need for me to play spoiler.Despite its forula script, Dodgeball has some funny scenes involving its crew of misfit players. Such as when they try and raise the money by having a car wash...we cut to a scene of gorgeous women in bikinis getting all wet and soapy and a long line of cars waiting...trouble is...that this is across the street and Average Joe's "All male" car wash has only one customer, a big, redneck who keeps paying the young Justin to wash his pickup over and over again.Stiller plays his role way over the top as a dimwitted diet and workout guru similar to the people you see on late night infomercials. Stepehen Root plays Gordon, a whipped nebbish type not too unlike the role he played in Office Space. Gary Cole and Jason Bateman are absoultely hilarious as the broadcast team for "ESPN 8".Dodgeball breaks no new ground but it doesn't try to. You know going in exactly what's going to happen in the end because it always happens the same way in these movies. But it's a fairly funny ride to get there with some enjoyably screwy performances from Stiller, Root, Cole, and Bateman.Call it 3 1/2 stars.