Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story Review
by Karina Montgomery (karina AT cinerina DOT com)July 7th, 2004
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
Matinee*
*(Pending investigation)
Confession: I was not going to review this movie, because I snuck into it after another movie (assuming, actually, that it would be terrible) and we missed a pretty good chunk of the begg, maybe 15 minutes. So I thought, no matter what I think of the rest of the film, I can't really say I saw it, since I missed so much. I had enough information to watch it, and so I settled in for my bonus round. Oh my goodness! I haven't laughed so hard at a Ben Stiller movie since Meet the Parents. I had missed old Ben, I loved him for so long, and even with that, he was the weakest link in the movie. Which is a compliment! My companion was pleasantly surprised as well. I hereby promise to see it again in the theatre and report back if my opinion is greatly changed by the missed portion.
(Time passes)
I saw it again; I apologize for my laziness as a reviewer for taking so long. This time around, it seemed shorter, even though I saw an extra 15 minutes. I laughed just as much at most of the jokes I had seen already, and a caught quite a few throwaway jokes that were really funny and I missed the first time for laughing. Dodgeball, I am shocked to say, rewards you for paying attention. It also rewards you for having totally juvenile sensibility, so it's really win win. My impression of it the first time on the drive home was how pure and simple and openly I laughed. It was like a Slurpee - not filling, not nutritious, just completely refreshing.
Vince Vaughn finally comes back to that delicious sardonic character (without the defects) that had us panting for more after Swingers. He can deliver a line that could not possibly work, and he makes it funny. Buoyed by a cast of gifted comic actors (not the least of which are Stephen Root, Justin Bateman, Galaxy Quest's Justin Long and Missi Pyle, Alan Tudyk, Rip Torn, and the Brady Movies' Gary Cole and Christine Taylor), Vaughn pilots his motley crew into a movie about a sport that I think I would actually watch. This movie makes the humiliating rainy-day gym ritual of dodgeball look cool and fun, and it is just all kinds of funny. Double kudos for the biggest laugh-to-cameo size ration ever (watch for an internationally famous Austinite in the last reel) - I wanted my second companion to see it just for that moment.
Look, Dodgeball's not going to win any Oscars; it will be lucky to be nominated for the MTV movie awards, but any movie that can run the gamut between high and low without feeling uneven or forced is a movie that deserves my custom, and so it has received it. Twice.
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These reviews (c) 2004 Karina Montgomery. Please feel free to forward but credit the reviewer in the text. Thanks. You can check out previous reviews at:
http://www.cinerina.com and http://ofcs.rottentomatoes.com - the Online Film Critics Society http://www.hsbr.net/reviews/karina/listing.hsbr - Hollywood Stock Exchange Brokerage Resource
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