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MOVIES / ON DVD / DODGEBALL: A TRUE UNDERDOG STORY
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story

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Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004)

70%
78%
78%
N/A
N/A
N/A
70 %
Reviews Counted: 151 Fresh: 105  Rotten:46 Average Rating: 6.3/10
 
Consensus: Cheerfully sloppy, dumb fun.
 

How does the Tomatometer work?

The Tomatometer measures the percentage of positive reviews from Approved Tomatometer Critics for a certain movie.[-]

Runtime: 1 hr 36 mins

Synopsis: Remember your childhood fears – perhaps born on your local playgrounds– of a red rubber ball hurtling towards your head? Or the sweet taste of revenge when you threw it right back at the class bully? Well, get ready to once again dodge, duck, dip and dive…dodgeball is back, and this time it’s not... Remember your childhood fears – perhaps born on your local playgrounds– of a red rubber ball hurtling towards your head? Or the sweet taste of revenge when you threw it right back at the class bully? Well, get ready to once again dodge, duck, dip and dive…dodgeball is back, and this time it’s not just for the schoolyard. Dodgeball is becoming a cultural phenomenon. Adult dodgeball leagues are springing up in major cities, Vanity Fair called the game the “It Sport,” and The New York Times and Fortune recently heralded the sport’s re-emergence. So the time is ripe for a poignant motion picture that brings dignity and respect to the world of competitive dodgeball. A tale in the tradition of great films about legendary sports heroes. An emotionally stirring look at the thrills of victory and the heartbreaks of defeat. We’ll let you know when that movie is made. In the meantime, we have DODGEBALL: A TRUE UNDERDOG STORY, a film that grabs life by the ball. The story’s protagonist, Peter LaFleur (Vince Vaughn), is a charismatic underachiever and proprietor of a rundown gym called Average Joe’s. The facility’s clientele of decidedly less-than-“average Joes” is made up of a self-styled pirate, a scrawny nerd who dreams of impressing an unattainable cheerleader, an obsessive aficionado of obscure sports, a dim-witted young man, and a cocky know-it-all who, of course, really knows nothing. Peter’s humble gym catches the eye of White Goodman (Ben Stiller), the power-mullet-sporting, Fu-Manchu-d, egomaniacal owner of Globo Gym, a gleaming monolith of fitness. White intends to take over Average Joe’s, and Peter’s non-existent bookkeeping is making it all too easy for him. A foreclosing bank has stationed attorney Kate Veatch (Christine Taylor) inside Average Joe’s to finalize Globo’s takeover of the gym. But Peter’s boyish charms win her over and Kate joins his team of social rejects to beat the odds – and their own ineptitude – to try to save Average Joe’s. How? A showdown dodgeball competition against Globo Gym. “Finally,” says DODGEBALL: A TRUE UNDERDOG STORY producer/star Ben Stiller, with tongue planted at least a little in cheek, “there is a real dodgeball film that doesn’t pull any punches and really shows the pain and humiliation associated with having a ball slam you in the face, in front of lots of people.” Stiller’s on-screen nemesis, Vince Vaughn, sees amidst the film’s raucous comedy, a universal tale of honor. “It’s about people who don’t fit in a traditional way, who come together and find self-respect and something – their gym – worth defending. Dodgeball becomes a vehicle for them to learn some life lessons and stand up for themselves.” Honor? Life lessons? Perhaps. But one thing is certain: DODGEBALL: A TRUE UNDERDOG STORY blazes new trails in motion picture history. Which is to say, it is the first major studio feature film on the subject. “A dodgeball movie is uncharted film territory,” says Rawson Marshall Thurber, the film’s writer/director, “but at the same time it inhabits the same tradition of great underdog movies like ‘Stripes,’ ‘The Bad News Bears’ and ‘Meatballs,’ which follow an archetypal comedy framework: scrappy underdogs take on the socially, financially or athletically gifted and prevail against all odds.” [More]

Genre: Comedies

Starring: Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller, Christine Taylor, Rip Torn, Jason Bateman

Director: Rawson Marshall Thurber
Screenwriter: Rawson Marshall Thurber
Producer: Ben Stiller, Stuart Cornfeld
Composer: Theodore Shapiro

DVD Info

Release:

Jan 4, 2008

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Region 1
  • Keep Case
  • Widescreen - 1.85

Audio:

  • Dolby Digital 5.1 - English
  • Dolby Surround - Spanish, French
  • Subtitles - English, Spanish - Optional

Additional Release Material:

  • Alternate Scenes - 1. Deleted/Extended Scenes
  • 2. Alternate Ending
  • Audio Commentary - 1. Rawson Marshall Thurber - Writer/Director, Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn - Stars
  • 2. Rawson Marshall Thurber - Writer/Director
  • Featurettes - 1. "Justin Long: A Study in Ham & Cheese"
  • 2. "Dodgeball Boot Camp: Training for Dodgeball"
  • 3. "The Anatomy of a Hit"
  • 4. "Dodgeball: Go for the Gold"
  • 5. "More with the Dodgeball Dancers: In Pink, In Blue, In Black"
  • Outtakes - Bloopers/Gag Reel
  • Trailers - 1. Original Theatrical Trailers
  • 2. THE RINGER
  • 3. ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT

DVD-ROM:

  • Additional Footage - White Goodman's Cousin (Stuart Cornfield cameo)
  • Additional Text - Screenplay
  • Featurette - 1. First Time Director
  • 2. White Goodman From the Globo Gym Video Screen
  • 3. Justin With Girls at Car Wash
  • Easter Eggs

Reviews

 
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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Ratings Image
3.5/5

Stiller gives one of his broadest and best performances to date, and the jokes ping around the screen as fast as the balls on the court.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/05/08
James Mottram
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
4/5

Crude, daft and hilarious, Dodgeball is the best mainstream American comedy in years.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/31/04
Nev Pierce
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
3/5

An enjoyable Friday night comedy that delivers several decent laugh-out loud gags, even if it’s not the movie it could have been with a more thought-out script.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/28/04
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon
Ratings Image
4/5

Watching people being hit in the balls has never been so much fun.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/28/04
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
N/A

You have to respect a movie that wears its shortcomings proudly on its sleeve

Full Review | comment Comment
08/26/04
Wendy Ide
Times [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
71/100

This is funny stuff, not quite on par with Zoolander, but well worth a look.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/22/04
Joe Utichi
FilmFocus
Ratings Image
2/5

It helps to have energetic and gifted actors, but you really need to give them funnier things to do and say.

Full Review | comment Comment
07/19/04
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall
Ratings Image
3/5

Trash comedies such as this are usually more painful than funny, but writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber pulls enough hilarious gags and cameos out of his gym bag to qualify his first feature as the summer’s first guilty pleasure.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/07/08
Mark Halverson
Sacramento News & Review
Ratings Image
3/4

Click to read the article

Full Review | comment Comment
12/27/07
Joe Lozito
Big Picture Big Sound
Ratings Image
4/4

This masterpiece of modern cinema depends upon a single truism: A guy getting hit in the nuts a hundred times in a row is funny a hundred times.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/14/07
Peter Travers
Rolling Stone
Ratings Image
4/5

The film wants only to pit its common-man heroes against a bunch of colorful, laughable adversaries, and achieves this goal admirably.

Full Review | comment Comment
07/30/07
Rob Gonsalves
eFilmCritic.com
Ratings Image
2.5/4

White Goodman is one of Stiller's craziest creations, a hilariously dim-witted and mean-spirited jock that doesn't realize how pathetic he really is.

Full Review | comment Comment
09/22/06
Russ Breimeier
Christianity Today
Ratings Image
2/5

The biggest laughs come from a cameo, which is never a good sign.

Full Review | comment Comment
07/22/06
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
Goatdog's Movies
Ratings Image
1/4

Can somebody please stop Ben Stiller?

Full Review | comment Comment
05/26/06
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid
Ratings Image
3.5/5

I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard at seeing a young man get beaned in the head with a wrench.

Full Review | comment Comment
12/06/05
Peter Lowry
Film Threat
Ratings Image
5/10

Anyone expecting to find something deep and meaningful in DODGEBALL: A TRUE UNDERDOG STORY should look somewhere else.

Full Review | comment 4 Comments
06/25/05
Dragan Antulov
Draxblog Movie Reviews
Ratings Image
2.5/5

I had a good time with this goofy mess of a movie, but I saw it for free.

Full Review | comment Comment
03/05/05
Ethan Alter
NYC Film Critic
Ratings Image
B

It never gets old watching someone take a dodgeball to the noggin.

Full Review | comment Comment
12/16/04
Forrest Hartman
Reno Gazette-Journal
Ratings Image
7/10

...it's got enough laughs in its ninety-odd minutes to justify the time spent on it, which is more than can be said for most recent comedies out of Hollywood.

Full Review | comment Comment
12/08/04
John J. Puccio
DVDTown.com
Ratings Image
C-

For every good punchline, there are fifteen that sound like they were scraped off the walls of mens' room stalls.

Full Review | comment Comment
12/06/04
Jeffrey Overstreet
Looking Closer
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Around the Network

• Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story at Rotten Tomatoes
• Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story at IGN
• Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story at AskMen
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