On DVD
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
(starring Vince Vaughn, Christine Taylor, and Ben Stiller)
I had mixed feelings about seeing the movie Dodgeball.
I find Ben Stiller to be absolutely hilarious most of the time, but I
have my own bad memories of dodgeball as a kid. This movie takes those
nightmares you remember about dodgeball in grade school and turns them
into a comedy about sports, competition, love, and teamwork.
Peter LaFleur (played by Vaughn) is the owner of a small gym called
"Average Joe's" that is about to be bought by a mega-corporate-gym owned
by White Goodman (played by Ben Stiller). Kate Veatch (Christine Taylor,
Stiller's real-life wife) plays an attorney for the bank foreclosing on
Average Joe's. The only way to keep White from buying Average Joe's is
for Peter and his group of misfit friends to win the world dodgeball
championship in Las Vegas.
Dodgeball is trademark Stiller work. It is full of references
to movies, sports figures, and pop culture. Although early in the movie
I felt like it was moving slowly and not as funny as I expected, the
comedy continued to pick up as the movie went on and by the end, I was
completely engaged and laughing out loud.
Several cameos added to the laughter, if not the plot. One of the
best was Lance Armstrong talking about persevering through adversity. It
doesn't sound funny, but the way that it fit into the story really was!
David Hasselhoff also appeared for a few minutes to parody his own image
in Germany.
As a sports fanatic, I found the commentary during the tournament to
be one of the funniest parts of the movie. Played by Gary Cole and Jason
Bateman, their quips were the typical "duh" kind of things that you hear
during major sporting events. The fact that they were so serious about
it made it even more hilarious.
Dodgeball is a movie that I will probably add to our home
library for those times when I just need no-brainer comedy that is easy
to follow. Stiller, Taylor, and Vaughn all gave solid performances that
are worthy of a rental. And if you get the DVD, make sure that you check
out the alternate ending. It was the ending originally shot for the
movie and was very different!!
Tricia Meyer
|
