Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
A big part of the reason for the obvious death of Modern American Comedy Cinema is the absolute dearth of new ideas for coming up with a concept that could actually be considered FUNNY. This lack of inspiration has led to two things: First, the constant shoving in our faces of uninteresting, unappealing actors (Seth Rogan, Jonah Hill, etc.), who do everything that they can to emulate the Legends of the 80s all while playing up their limited appeal with an assortment of stock characters (Goofy Fat Stoner, Complete Loser, etc.), making millions in the process while only attracting the least discriminating viewers who might actually find them âfunnyâ (the collapse of the talent base on Saturday Night Live is also reflective of this), and second, we have it where WAY too many comedies now borrow their stories and concepts (and even actual lines of dialogue wholesale) from the same goldmine of 80s (and 90s) classics that those once great stars populated, usually not going the route of a remake (as with horror and sci fi) but rather âupdatesâ on material that had already been covered to the fullest potential back in the era in which it was originally made. So when relative newcomer writer / director Rawson Marshall Thurber came up with the idea for this 2004 release, he retained just a hint of the old underdog comedy formula while utilizing a story that was fairly fresh at that time, that being a sports movie about a sport that wasnât really a sport (despite the fact that it was actually nominated for an ESPY award for Best Sports Movie), but rather instead a game that any American kid who had ever gone to a gym class had played: Dodgeball, the classic and brutal tradition of having hyped up crazy kids in a school gym wielding hard, rubber red balls, firing them at each other left and right as they take out some aggression in possibly settling old scores with other kids whom they didnât like, and more importantly, bringing the concept of bullying into an organized sports format, giving those the opportunity to just pummel away at the smaller, weaker kids with great traumatizing abandon (while certain larger framed kids could also make for much easier targets). From this pool of brutalizing childhood memories Thurber came up with a slightly different alternate universe than ours where Dodgeball was not only a real, legitimate sport (albeit obscure), but also one that had an official governing and sanctioning body (with William Shatner as âThe Chancellorâ) and also one that had their big events broadcast on the fictional ESPN8 (a.k.a. The Ocho) for any lucky extended cable plan subscribers to enjoy. But first we get treated to the main story about two rival business owners who both run their own fitness centers that couldnât be two more polar opposites from each other, one of them being Vince Vaughn (who often falls into the deathtrap of starring in unfunny comedies, but who here plays it glib, detached, and off the cuff and manages to score major points) as the owner of Average Joeâs, a rundown gym in the bad area of town whose motto seems to be that itâs okay to be fat and lazy even though youâre more than welcome to come on down, hang out, and do a little exercise if it suits you, which thus turns the entire place into being kind of its own social club for a motley crew of losers and misfits who seemingly have nowhere else to go to fit in. On the other end of the spectrum is Ben Stiller (still the exception to the rule amongst modern comedy stars whose own starring vehicles actually seem fresh and funny compared to what everyone else is shitting out) as White Goodman (even the name is funny), a gung ho fitness guru who not only openly tells people of their own physical faults with glee, but despite being in what would appear to be very good physical shape, also possesses a deep streak of insecurity along with a wanton inability to ever truly be sincere, having turned himself from being a 600 lb fat slob into the physical specimen that he is today and always taking great joy in constantly reminding people about that fact all the time. Stiller is so worked up into character here that he would almost seem to go off the rails at times, but he is just really (and brilliantly) playing a variation of an ultra cocky wrestling bad guy villain who just so happens to be EXACTLY like that in real life as well. When Stiller buys out the foreclosure on Vaughnâs gym so that he can shut it down and demolish it, Vaughn and his friends decide that the only way that they can raise the money to save it is by entering the International Dodgeball Tournament in Las Vegas, an idea that sounds so good to Stiller that he decides to organize his own team and enter it as well (it appears that he and Vaughnâs hatred for each other goes back quite a while). Vaughn brings in a legendary old dodgeball player to be their coach (Rip Torn in a rip roaring, scene stealing performance), and with the old manâs training philosophy of âIf you can dodge a wrench / traffic, then you can dodge a ballâ, they get whipped into shape to being hopefully slightly less a bunch of losers than they were before. And what a bunch of losers we have here, including Justin Long (best known as the hated Mac Guy) as a failed male cheerleader pining for the cheer squad girl whom he loves, Stephen Root as a middle aged putz with an Asian mail order wife who could care less about him, Joel David Moore as the awkward to the point of painful gym employee who doesnât even know the names of half the other members on his own team even as he falls for Stillerâs Slavic female team member (Missi Pyle), Chris Williams as the fairly bland (and most hip) token black member of the group, and best of all, Alan Tudyk as the hilariously loopy Steve The Pirate, a grown man walking around in modern times who looks, dresses, acts, and talks just like a full fledged pirate (obviously someone who is in deep need of therapy but who nearly steals the movie regardless). They are soon joined by Christine Taylor (Stillerâs real life wife) as the foreclosure lawyer from the bank who only joins them solely due to the fact that she is completely and utterly revulsed by Stillerâs advancements on her and canât wait to see the look on his face when he and his squad of American Gladiators rejects loses out in the end. And then itâs on to the tournament itself in Vegas, presented just as it would be on TV with Gary Cole as the play by play announcer, although with Jason Bateman as his color man itâs hard to tell just what exactly Bateman was going for here, getting limited comic mileage out of his sports anchor who seems completely clueless most of the time besides having a notable penchant for stating the obvious. We also get a slew of cameos throughout the film as well, with Lance Armstrongâs in 20/20 hindsight now coming across as being rather ironic instead of comically inspirational as was originally intended, but it is Vaughn with his laid back, not even trying but still being funny demeanor that carries the whole thing off, acting as literally a straight man for the whole entire cast and with his casual style of not taking anything seriously offers a shocking contrast to Stillerâs near obsessed perfectionist with a preoccupation with taking everything in life so seriously to the point that he can now lord both himself and his accomplishments over all other mere mortals, and itâs that very contrast that makes for a virtual wellspring of humorous moments between the two building all the way up to the final battle, taking the rules and precepts of the dodgeball game as we know them and applying them to a fictional sports movie much more impressively than in something like BASEketball (whose âsportâ in that movie NEVER seemed even remotely realistic), and in fact, after this filmâs release it became fictional no more, as actual adult dodgeball leagues started to spring up all over the country (one outfit even made Rip Torn its actual real life commissioner) thus successfully turning dodgeball into an official if still obscure American sport even as the movie itself took its rightful place as one of the best comedies within the very limited range of the 21st century, taking on the brilliant absurdity of its original idea and then running for daylight with it all the way to victory as one of the very few comedy classics in recent yearsâŚ
9/10