dodgeball review

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Average Ratings

Value for Money	7.3/10
Reviewer Rating	7.7/10
Overall Rating	6.7/10

83% Recommended5 out of 6 Reviews

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By 80smetal4ever on 19th Aug 2004

80smetal4ever's Ratings

Starring Actor/Actress	Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Rip Torn, Christine Tay
Where Did You See It?	Cinema
Value for money	9/10
Overall value	9/10
80smetal4ever's recommendation

Good Points

A simple, yet very funny movie. Ben Stiller's third best role after "Something about Mary", and "Meet the Parents". Vince Vaughn also is on top of his game.

Bad Points

Wish the movie would have been longer.

General Comments

While Dodgeball looks dumb, it is the funniest film of the year so far. The basics are that two fitness gyms are across the street from each other. There is "Globo Gym" which is a state-of-the-art facility owned by White Goodman (Ben Stiller). This is Ben Stiller's third best role, after "Something about Mary", and "Meet the Parents". Across the street is the "Average Joe's" gym. It is a run down, older gym, with a bunch of losers for members. It is run by Peter LeFleur (Vince Vaughn). I'm not sure where Vince was hiding after he made the "Cell", and before he made "Old School" - but it is good to have him back in movies again.

The bank sends a representative to tell Peter LeFleur that he owes them 50,000. Her character is Miss Beech, and she is played by Christine Taylor (Marcia Brady in the current Brady films, and Ben Stiller's real life wife). She is attractive, but it looks like she may have used botox on parts of her face.

Peter has a month to pay the 50k, or his mortgage becomes property of the bank, who has agreed to sell it to White Goodman. He begins to taunt Peter about this, telling him that his gym will make a great parking lot in about a month.

The guys at Average Joe's try to come up with ideas to raise the money. Their idea of a car wash, didn't work so well. One of them sees that a dodgeball tournament in Las Vegas pays 50,000 to the winner. However, only one of their 8 members knows how to play. He borrows a 1930's instructional film from his high school to bring to the guys to teach them the game. The film is very funny, it is in black and white, and features the 5 rules of dodgeball: dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge.

Their team has to win a qualifying match first to make it to the Vegas tourney. They end up playing a girl scout troop from their hometown. They actually lose to the girls. In an interesting twist, one of the girl scouts tests positive for 3 types of steroids, so the Average Joe's team wins by default.

White Goodman is friends with the chancellor of the dodgeball association(William Shatner/Captain Kirk), and pulls some strings to get his team in the tournament too. His team has 3 guys who weigh at least 250 lbs, and a woman who goes at least 200, and is the reigning dodgeball champ for 5 years running in her native Soviet country.

The key to the Average Joe's team is their coach. He is Patches O'Houlihan, a former 8-time dodgeball all star. He is now in a wheelchair, but that doesn't take anything away from his coaching ability. He has very strange methods, but he gets results. "If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball"...

The dodgeball tournament is going to be broadcasted live on ESPN 8, the "Ocho". The announcers are awesome!! They are "Cotton", played by Mr. Brady of the current Brady films, and "Pepper", played by Jason Batemen. Pepper is the color analyst, and a master of the obvious. Here is one of my favorite quotes. Cotton says, "Wow, it's a two on one for the Purple Vipers against the Average Joe's, that's what I call a menage a trois of pain". The response by Pepper, "You know Cotton, you usually have to pay a little extra for that type of action". That was so gravy.

Both of the gymnasium teams keep winning, and find themselves in the final vs. one another. Nobody is giving Average Joe's a chance, as the team led by White Goodman is just so good.

There are some great cameos in this film, including: William Shatner, Chuck Norris, and Lance Armstrong.

I'm not going to give away the end, but it was very good. I give this film a 9/10. I had to see this film twice, to get all the good "one liners".

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