Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story truly is a classic. Comedic winners Vince Vaughn, Christine Taylor, and Ben Stiller deliver worthy performances in this underdog film. The movie is for lovers of slapstick humor-if Zoolander, Old School, and/or Starsky & Hutch float your boat, then you’ll love Dodgeball.
Peter LaFleur (Vince Vaughn) is the owner of Average Joe’s gym and the leader of the gym’s five oddball clientele: including a pathetic man who came up with the concept of dodgeball, the hilarious Milton Waddams from 1999’s Office Space (Stephen Root); Steve the Pirate (Alan Tudyk); and three other awkward young men. White Goodman (Ben Stiller), the owner of corporately successful Globo Gym, has his mind set on knocking down Average Joe’s and putting up a parking lot. He recruits banker Kate Veatch (Christine Taylor) to help him put the cozy Joe’s out of business. Before long, Kate teams up on the underdog side of a dodgeball competition against the two gyms for the money that determines the future of beloved Joe’s.
The whole film is a hilarious parody of dramatic sports movies and a surprisingly inspirational story as the audience sympathizes with Peter’s character development, with the help of a witty cameo by Lance Armstrong. Vaughn is completely loveable, Taylor (Stiller‘s real-life wife) completely charming, and Stiller utterly repulsive. Moviegoers wonder how Mr. and Mrs. Ben Stiller keep a straight face while acting like bitter rivals.
While Dodgeball fails to provide much substance or even a good story to the big screen, its humor is unmatched by any movie so far this summer. Some of its classic moments include LaFleur’s chugging a YooHoo chocolate milk while brushing his teeth; Average Joe’s dodgeball instructor, Patches O’Houlihan (Rip Torn), chucking wrenches at his players; the electro-shock treatment Goodman uses to keep from eating a donut; Goodman’s receiving oral pleasure from a slice of pizza-and not from eating it. You will leave Dodgeball obsessed with its extreme main characters, whether out of pleasure or disgust, and waiting in angst for the next movie from these hilarious, gifted actors. If you can stomach 92 minutes of stupidity for the moments of belly laughs worthy of repeating over and over again with your friends afterwards, then Dodgeball is certainly worth the admission price.
