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Written by Administrator
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Friday, 17 December 2004 00:00 |
"At Globo Gym we understand that "ugliness" and "fatness" are genetic
disorders, much like baldness or necrophilia, and it's only your fault
if you don't hate yourself enough to do something about it."
Movie
 *sigh*... where do I begin? Have you ever seen a movie that
has a bunch of hilarious one-liners, a super talented cast, but yet
doesn't seem to put it all together for a good movie? I honestly
thought with Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn starring, there would be no
way this wasn't the funniest movie I'd seen all year... I was wrong.
Let me start with Ben Stiller. When he's on, he's arguably one of the
funniest men alive. Problem is he can only play two different
characters. He can play the guy that's completely lacking any self
confidence (Meet the Parents, There's Something About Mary, Along Came
Polly) or the complete airhead and/or jerk (Happy Gilmore,
Heavyweights, Dodgeball). There is like nothing in the middle. Then
you've got Vince Vaughn who plays his typical funny but nice guy role
similar to the role he played in Old School. To tell you the truth, I
think this movie would've worked a lot better if Ben Stiller was the
nice guy and Vince Vaughn was the jerk. Anyone who has seen Swingers or
Made will tell you that Vince Vaughn makes a great
hatable-but-in-a-lovable-way kind of character.
Anyways, there isn't a whole lot of plot to speak of. Basically Peter
(Vaughn) runs a small-time gym that doesn't make much money but is
well-liked by the people that go. White (Stiller) owns Globo Gym and
buys the second mortgage on Average Joe's gym when Peter is unable to
make payments. Peter must come up with $50,000 in the next month or
else he loses his gym. He can't think of any ways to make money until
Gordon (Stephen Root) persuades him to try to win the national
dodgeball tournament. You can already probably guess just about
everything that happens in the movie, so the plot obviously doesn't
matter. Like most comedies, the plot exists solely to set up joke after
joke after joke. Some of them are obvious. Others are not... not once
is it really mentioned that the finals are the Average Joe's vs. the
Globo Gym Cobras. Joes vs. Cobras. If you get that joke, more power to
you...
The whole time I was watching this movie, I kept thinking it's a lot
like Baseketball... only I thought everything that Dodgeball did well,
Baseketball did better. Some of the references Dodgeball made like ESPN
8 ("the ocho") were kind of funny but it's a tired joke. As for a
dodgeball smacking someone right in the face or right in the nads...
funny for a little bit, but it's tired by the end of the movie. You
can't show someone getting hit in the balls 25 times and then expect it
to get any kind of reaction when you show it again. It's the same
reason I don't watch America's Funniest Home Videos anymore. I could
see this movie being funnier and funnier each time I watch it like
Zoolander is, but overall I felt a little disappointed after watching
this movie.
Video & Sound
It's available in widescreen or full screen, but I obviously always go
wide baby! It's a 2:35 to 1 anamorphic transfer and to tell you the
truth, it looks pretty good. I guess I couldn't give it a higher score
just because it's a comedy and there was no real camera work or shots
that I left all that impressed with. Still, not bad overall, though. I
thought the sound was surprisingly impressive, though. The action was
good, but I also noticed that more than a few times the surrounds were
used for some discrete background noises that I thought was pretty
impressive for a comedy. The video and sound isn't Lord of the Rings
quality, but it doesn't need to be, either.
Extras
The first extras I always check out (if available) is the commentary.
Featuring director Rawson Marshall Thurber along with Vince Vaughn and
Ben Stiller, it's a pretty good listen. It reminded me a lot of Vince
Vaughn's commentary on Old School. They are all a little more subdued
and sometimes they aren't talking about the movie per se, but it's
still a fun listen. There are a few deleted scenes. I'm usually not a
huge fan of deleted scenes, but sometimes in comedies, like this one,
they are worth a watch. The last deleted scene is an alternate ending
which I actually prefer to the real ending. I can understand why they
didn't use it, though. There are four featurettes on here, The Anatomy
of a Hit, Dodgeball Boot Camp, Justin Long: A Study in Ham &
Cheese, and Dodgeball: Go for the Gold. It's kind of ridiculous and it
obviously is a bit of self-parody, but there really isn't any reason to
watch these more than once... if at all.
Closing Thoughts
I can't help but feel let down. It is a funny movie and there are a
bunch of funny lines, but for whatever reason, the sum of the parts
don't add up to a good whole. I really didn't enjoy Ben Stiller in this
role and I thought Vince Vaughn was awfully average compared to some of
his other flicks. Rip Torn has a few funny lines, but after a while
it's almost like you become numb to that because you always expect him
to say something extremely politically incorrect. I'd probably
recommend giving this one a rent, but I wouldn't say it's the funniest
movie of the year like I thought it might be.
Overall Score
Movie - 6
Video & Sound - 7
Extras - 6
Overall - 6
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Last Updated on Friday, 17 December 2004 10:29 |
