Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story

Review by Clint Morris

There's been plenty of sports comedies, there's also been a couple of films about off-the-wall sports - David Zucker's Baseketball (1999) stands out.

But there's only one Ben Stiller, and it's the gifted comic actors presence in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story that helps this ostensibly dime-a-dozen Studio effort rise above the norm.

Peter La Fleur (Vince Vaughan) runs a ramshackle gym called 'Average Joe's', where bookkeeping is non-existent and the only visitors are mainly the geeks he's friends with. Average Joe's competitor is the sleek Globo Gym, a teeming, attractive, slick organisation run by the egomaniacal nut-bag White Goodman (Ben Stiller).

When the bank decides to foreclose La Fluer's business, attorney Kate Veatch (Christine Taylor) lets the good-natured underachiever know that he's got a month to come up with fifty thousand smackers.

After a spell of head scratching, La Fleur and his dim-witted ensemble decide that the way to win the dough would be to enter and consequently win the - remember this odd game from school? - Dodgeball Championships. And of course, Globo Gym is the inexorable title holder.

To be fair, Ben Stiller isn't the only appeal of the film. Vince Vaughn - who actually played the villain in Starsky and Hutch with Stiller earlier this year - is right at home in the role of the underdog loser and supporting players Justin Long, Stephen Root, Alan Tudyk and Christine "Mrs Stiller" Taylor are also at their best.

More credit's due though to writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber, because without his snappy script and dialogue, most of the characters would be about as useful as "poop-flavoured lollipops". And though most of the script borderlines on the juvenile, the film doesn't seem to be trying too hard to aim for an audience anything other than the tweenies anyway, and with that in mind, should basically rob their funny bone come the first reel.

There are some jokes that don't work very well in the film, and there's also spots that smell a little cast-off, and even Stiller's character, to an extent, is a little too reminiscent of the one he played in Zoolander.

But overall, Dodgeball is a fun little flick - the cameo's alone are a good giggle - that scores points for it's fervent team spirit and capability to entertain on-court.

3.5 out of 5

Dodgeball
Australian release: Thursday September 9th
Cast: Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller, Christine Taylor, Rip Torn, Justin Long, Stephen Root, Alan Tudyk, Missi Pyle, Gary Cole, Jason Bateman, Hank Azaria, Curtis Armstrong.
Director: Rawson Marshall Thurber.
Website: Click here.

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