...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.
Stiller's sniveling little imbecile is a good foil for Vaughn's laid-back slacker. When White suggests to Kate that they should "mate, er, date" sometime, Kate throws up in her mouth, "just a little bit," she tells him. "Hey, you know," responds White, "in some cultures they only eat vomit." But it's really the O'Houlihan character (played in the present by Torn and in flashback by Hank Azaria) who steals the picture. "Remember, dodgeball is a sport of violence, exclusion, and degradation," O'Houlihan proclaims in a 1950's dodgeball training film. He throws wrenches at his players to sharpen up their dodging skills ("If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball"), and he comes replete with a full assortment of insults: "You couldn't hit water if you fell out of a boat!"
Pete's motto: "Aim low."
"Dodgeball" is rated PG-13 so the crudity doesn't get out of hand, but do expect a healthy dose of crotch and ball gags, as well as any number of fat jokes. The movie is not particularly offensive, just a little risqué. To spice things up, the filmmakers throw in a few cameos--Lance Armstrong, Chuck Norris, David Hasselhoff, William Shatner, even writer/director Rawson Marshall Thurber, who is here making his first feature-length film and figured he might as well be in it, too.
Stiller's previous few movies, like "Duplex" and "Starsky & Hutch," elicited no laughs from me and no smiles whatsoever. "Dodgeball," on the other hand, made me break out laughing a half a dozen times and smile quite a lot. Nevertheless, as I've said before, humor is a funny thing, and what tickles one person may bore another.
This one didn't bore me.
Video:
The picture quality is quite good, as are most of Fox's transfers, but not quite in the same league with their "I, Robot" transfer of about the same time period. The screen size for "Dodgeball" measures an anamorphic ratio approximately 2.17:1 across my standard-screen HD television, and the transfer itself is reproduced at a relatively high bit rate. I found the video somewhat dark overall, but with good color and above-average definition. Black levels are strong, grain is mostly absent, and very minor halos are only noticeable upon close inspection, which should not be an issue for most viewers.
Audio:
There is not a lot for the multiple speakers in a Dolby Digital 5.1 system to do in this kind of a movie, where dialogue is chiefly the rule, but the DD 5.1 sound is clean and clear. Speech is firmly anchored in the front center speaker, for better or for worse, and the stereo spread is modest at best. Yet when the surrounds are needed for a few vocals and some crowd noise, they work efficiently and add to the fun of the proceedings.
Extras:
The disc is not promoted as a special edition, but it contains enough extras to qualify as one. To begin, there's an audio commentary with the director Rawson Marshall Thurber and actors Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn. How should I describe it? Let's just say it's different. Next, there are seven deleted or extended scenes, plus an alternate ending, all with optional commentary by director Thurber. Following these items are four featurettes, "Dodgeball Boot Camp: Training For Dodgeball," "The Anatomy Of A Hit," "Justin Long: A Study In Ham & Cheese," and "Dodgeball: Go For the Gold," each featurette between two and four minutes long. Next, there is a three-minute gag reel filled with bloopers. Then the bonuses conclude with twenty-two scene selections; two theatrical trailers for "Dodgeball"; a trailer for "Arrested Development"; a teaser trailer for "The Ringer"; and a DVD-ROM screenplay. English, French, and Spanish are the spoken language options, with English and Spanish subtitles.
Parting Thoughts:
No one is going to mistake the wacky humor in "Dodgeball" for something like the subtly sophisticated wit of the Coen brothers' "Intolerable Cruelty"; and few people will find the sheer number of outright laughs in "Dodgeball" that are found in the Farrelly brothers' "There's Something About Mary." But "Dodgeball" is a giant step upwards from the likes of "White Chicks," "New York Minute," "The Girl Next Door," and other such contemporary Tinseltown comedies. The humor in "Dodgeball" may be a bit dodgy, but at least it's there.
Pete's motto: "Aim low."
"Dodgeball" is rated PG-13 so the crudity doesn't get out of hand, but do expect a healthy dose of crotch and ball gags, as well as any number of fat jokes. The movie is not particularly offensive, just a little risqué. To spice things up, the filmmakers throw in a few cameos--Lance Armstrong, Chuck Norris, David Hasselhoff, William Shatner, even writer/director Rawson Marshall Thurber, who is here making his first feature-length film and figured he might as well be in it, too.
Stiller's previous few movies, like "Duplex" and "Starsky & Hutch," elicited no laughs from me and no smiles whatsoever. "Dodgeball," on the other hand, made me break out laughing a half a dozen times and smile quite a lot. Nevertheless, as I've said before, humor is a funny thing, and what tickles one person may bore another.
This one didn't bore me.
Video:
The picture quality is quite good, as are most of Fox's transfers, but not quite in the same league with their "I, Robot" transfer of about the same time period. The screen size for "Dodgeball" measures an anamorphic ratio approximately 2.17:1 across my standard-screen HD television, and the transfer itself is reproduced at a relatively high bit rate. I found the video somewhat dark overall, but with good color and above-average definition. Black levels are strong, grain is mostly absent, and very minor halos are only noticeable upon close inspection, which should not be an issue for most viewers.
Audio:
There is not a lot for the multiple speakers in a Dolby Digital 5.1 system to do in this kind of a movie, where dialogue is chiefly the rule, but the DD 5.1 sound is clean and clear. Speech is firmly anchored in the front center speaker, for better or for worse, and the stereo spread is modest at best. Yet when the surrounds are needed for a few vocals and some crowd noise, they work efficiently and add to the fun of the proceedings.
Extras:
The disc is not promoted as a special edition, but it contains enough extras to qualify as one. To begin, there's an audio commentary with the director Rawson Marshall Thurber and actors Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn. How should I describe it? Let's just say it's different. Next, there are seven deleted or extended scenes, plus an alternate ending, all with optional commentary by director Thurber. Following these items are four featurettes, "Dodgeball Boot Camp: Training For Dodgeball," "The Anatomy Of A Hit," "Justin Long: A Study In Ham & Cheese," and "Dodgeball: Go For the Gold," each featurette between two and four minutes long. Next, there is a three-minute gag reel filled with bloopers. Then the bonuses conclude with twenty-two scene selections; two theatrical trailers for "Dodgeball"; a trailer for "Arrested Development"; a teaser trailer for "The Ringer"; and a DVD-ROM screenplay. English, French, and Spanish are the spoken language options, with English and Spanish subtitles.
Parting Thoughts:
No one is going to mistake the wacky humor in "Dodgeball" for something like the subtly sophisticated wit of the Coen brothers' "Intolerable Cruelty"; and few people will find the sheer number of outright laughs in "Dodgeball" that are found in the Farrelly brothers' "There's Something About Mary." But "Dodgeball" is a giant step upwards from the likes of "White Chicks," "New York Minute," "The Girl Next Door," and other such contemporary Tinseltown comedies. The humor in "Dodgeball" may be a bit dodgy, but at least it's there.
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[release]13059[/release]