Monday, October 17, 2005

Apparently, someone already had the rights to "Tetherball": "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story"

Not to use a technical term here, but this movie sucks.

Bear in mind I have a high tolerance -- nay, preference -- for juvenile humor. "Eurotrip," anyone? But to list "Dodgeball" alongside "Old School" and "Wedding Crashers" ... well, as Socrates once said, "Dem's fightin' words."

I know I didn't see "Dodgeball" in the theater, but I'm not quite sure where I did see it for the first time. Maybe on an airplane. Anyway, it's in the HBO rotation now, and I caught it in pieces over a few nights. I broke it up not because it was long or anything, but because it was hard to take more than a half-hour at a time.

You know the premise: Deadbeat with a heart of gold Vince Vaughn ("Rudy") tries to save his rundown gym from being bought by an evil Gold's Gymesque outfit led by Ben Stiller ("Mystery Men"). To do so, Vince and his customers -- what a kooky crew! -- enter a dodgeball tournament. Believe it or not, it comes down to them vs. Stiller and Co. in the title game. Who knew?

Like any Frat Pack comedy, this is an excuse for stringing together funny scenes and one-liners. The only problem: The scenes aren't funny. Really, I don't recall laughing out loud much at all, and any chuckles from the general idea of adults training for and entering a dodgeball tournament lasted, oh, five minutes.

So the "script" is one problem. An even bigger one is the cast -- specifically the two leads. I like Vaughn and Stiller just fine, but these roles were totally wrong for them. Vaughn playing the straight man is like Clint Eastwood doing slapstick. He's a much better as a supporting guy with only a few funny scenes. (Especially when he's got a microphone in hand ... not just "Old School," but also "Starsky and Hutch.") Stiller has more range -- which isn't saying much -- but his villain here, even if tongue in cheek (hey, his name is "White Goodman" ... how silly!) was more annoying than amusing, and not in a funny way.

This might be bearable if any of the supporting guys were funny, but they're not. That guy acts like a pirate! How zany! Hell, if I had to pick, the best guys were the commentators for ESPN8 -- "the Ocho" -- at the dodgeball tournament. Jason Bateman's comeback continues!

Like I said, it's no reflection on juvenile comedy. "Old School" remains the standard among Frat Pack movies, but even "Anchorman" and "Starsky and Hutch" trump this crap, and by a decent margin. Now if this movie was about professional hopscotch, it could be a different story.

1 Comments:

At 3:40 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I saw this in the theaters and hated it. I've seen it since and enjoyed it a little more but it's just not that good. I agree that Bateman is hilarious and I appreciated the Lance Armstrong cameo, but, other than that, it's a little thin.

 

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