Product: Dodgeball/Borat Bonus Preview Disc (2004)
Rating: 3.0
Mr. Jokey Jokemaker
Sometimes, you just have to ask yourself what's funny. Is something really funny, or is not really but seems to be because of a certain action that's going on on screen?. Personally, I love a good, intelligent, sophisticated comedy, but just as much, I love the low-brow, slapstick, juvenile type. In the case of this movie, the slapstickiness and the ongoing pounding of rubber balls on human flesh is just funny in it's own right, but it takes on more meaning because it brings back memories, most of them not good, of the sport back in our school days. Thinking about the horrors of the barbaric sport in gym class and, if you were one of the unlucky ones, remembering being one of the unwilling picked on players who would just get massacred, makes the comedy here more personal. And that much more funnier. Vince Vaughan stars as Peter LaFleur, a laid back slacker type who runs his own little gym, Average Joe's. Which pretty much sums up his character. His gym is kind of slummy with some sad sack clientele. When he learns that he is in debt and owes $50,000 dollars, he must come up with a plan, or he will have to close his place, and hand it over to White Goodman(the hilariously crazy Ben Stiller), a nazi-like fitness guru with a massive gym, and just as massive hair and ego. Peter and his band of misfits learn of a Dodgeball tournament in Las Vegas where the first prize is, you guessed it, $50,000. What a perfect koinkidink. But who shows up?. White, of course. What we have here is a good natured, little underdog story that mostly works. It is by no means a classic, but it is a competent little comedy that is consistent in it's run and it's laughs. It also doesn't hurt that it has a very solid footing with it's good cast. Rip Torn plays their dodgeball coach, who is seen in a 1950's educational type film and is played by an uncredited Hank Azaria. There are a few other cameos here too like William Shatner, Lance Armstrong, Chuck Norris(who is hilariously insulted in the last scene), and David Hassellhoff. The commentators for the sport are played by the always great and welcomed Gary Cole, and the mysteriously uncredited Jason Bateman. Those two are reminiscent of Fred Willard in "Best In Show", and they are just as funny. The regular cast holds things up nicely too. The always reliable Stephen Root("Office Space", "King Of The Hill", "NewsRadio")is great here as a nerdish family man. Justin Long, from "Ed" and the "Jeepers Creepers" movies is hysterical as, well, Justin, the poor kid who seems the bear the brunt of the slamming balls and other airborn devices. Stiller's real life wife, Christine Taylor, also co-stars. And what can you say about Stiller?. He has always been very talented, and his creation of White Goodman here is hysterical. He keeps it interesting and fun when waiting to hear what dimbulb thing he is going to say next. This is a movie that is pretty funny and enjoyable on it's own, but is made so much funnier when we remember the rigors of high school gym class and are able to look back on it and laugh. Well, hopefully.