...it's got enough laughs in its ninety-odd minutes to justify the time spent on it, which is more than can be said for most recent comedies out of Hollywood.
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I recall playing dodgeball as a kid. My elementary school in the early fifties had big white circles painted on the asphalt, and some players would be inside the ring and some players would be outside with a ball. But I also remember liking to play the game against a wall; it seemed more intense with only a bit of lateral movement allowed. Besides, the idea amongst the boys was to hit somebody as hard as possible, and a wall seemed to heighten the action (and the hurt). A guy thing.
Which is the point of this 2004 movie, "Dodgeball," I suppose. It takes an essentially youngsters' game and inflates it to near mythic proportions, with adults behaving like children. The movie may not boast enough ingredients for a long-term comedy classic, but it's got enough laughs in its ninety-odd minutes to justify the time spent on it, which is more than can be said for most recent comedies out of Hollywood.
Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller star as rival gym owners, Vaughn pretty much playing straight man to Stiller's manic-obsessive funnyman. Needless to day, the conflict develops around a dodgeball game, with Vaughn's ragtag team of washouts struggling against Stiller's band of super-jocks. The whole thing is played as a parody of those inspiring, come-from-behind sports movies where you cheer for the losers to overcome all odds--the boxers, runners, football clubs, softball squads, bicycling teams, you name it, who persevere despite their wretched chances and emerge victorious in the end. "Dodgeball" just takes it all to the point of absurdity with a world invitational dodgeball competition, the movie subtitled with appropriate tongue-in-cheek, "A True Underdog Story."
Vaughn is Peter LaFleur, a Mr. Nice-Guy who owns Average Joe's Gym, a run-down little place that caters to a clientele of scruffy misfits unable to pay their bills. Pete doesn't care because they're all like family, and, besides, he feels like he's one of them. Pete's having a good day when his car starts in the morning.
Among Pete's staff and clients are Steve the Pirate (Alan Tudyk), who talks and dresses like Long John Silver; Gordon (Stephen Root), a role that seems patterned after the Rick Moranis character in "Ghostbusters"; Justin (Justin Long), a young fellow who may or may not still be in high school and is hopelessly in love with the head cheerleader; and Dwight (Chris Williams) and Owen (Joel Moore), a couple of loyal but not entirely brainy hangers-on.
Across the street is Globo Gym America, a huge, upscale, multimillion-dollar facility run by White Goodman ("Hi, I'm White"), played by Ben Stiller. White is an egomaniacal, little, creepy, hard-driven, pumped-up jerk who bought the place with his father's money. His slogan: "Here at Globo Gym, we're better than you, and we know it!" ("Just kidding. But not really.") Moreover, White isn't interested in merely owning a chain of fancy gyms, he wants Pete's place, too; he says he needs the space for a parking lot, but he really hates any kind of threat to his business or his ego, even one as lopsided as this. "Your gym is a skid mark on the underpants of society," White tells Pete.
Pete owes $50,000 in back rent, and if he doesn't pay up, the bank will foreclose and White will buy him out. The beautiful young bank lawyer who presents the bad news to Pete is Kate Veatch (Christine Taylor), a lady we can see in a minute will soon become the romantic interest in the story.
So, where does the game of dodgeball come in? Gordon just happens to be an avid reader of "Obscure Sports Quarterly" and notices that there is a dodgeball tournament with a first prize of...you guessed it...$50,000. The little band from Average Joe's decides to enter the Las Vegas International Dodgeball Open, at which point White determines to field a team as well. Only White's team is made up of guys named Blade, Lazer, Blazer, and Me'Shell, all buffed, six-foot athletes; plus their ringer, Fran Stalinovskovichdaviddivichski, a Romanovian dodgeball champion and "the deadliest woman on earth with a dodgeball."
I mean, what's a little team to do against those odds? Hire the greatest dodgeball player of all time as their coach, that's what. Never mind that he's now about 800 hundred years old and in a wheelchair. He's the illustrious Patches O'Houlihan, performed with his usual vigor by actor Rip Torn. "If you're going to be true dodgeballers," he tells his men, "then you've got to learn the five D's of dodgeball: Dodge, duck, dip, dive, and...dodge."
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