Dodgeball - A True Underdog Story (Widescreen Edition)

Rating:
Summary: The Exciting World Of Dodgeball!
Review: A movie about a dodgeball team? This has got to be corney and run very short on jokes. In fact, I bet that the only funny parts of the movie are the ones that they show in the trailer. How funny can a movie about a bunch of guys (and a girl) playing dodgeball really be? The answer: absolutly hilarious.

The movie is about a gym owner, Peter LaFleur (Vince Vaughn) who is behind eight months in all of his payments. The owner of the bigger Global Gym, that is located right across the street from his "Average Joe" gym is Dwight Goodman (Ben Stiller). Goodman wants to buy out Peter's gym so that he can make a parking lot for his customers. But the patrons at Average Joe's don't want this to happen. So they decide to play in a dodgeball championship in order to raise $50,000 before the end of the month. Of course when Goodman finds this out he enters a team of his own into the tournament. With a little help from a crazy old man in a wheelchair Patches O'Houlihan, who happens to be the greatest dodgeball player of all time, and Christine Taylor, the Average Joe's Gym team goes to Las Vegas to play in the Dodgeball tournament.

First of all, this charactrs in this movie are absolutely hilarious. Vince Vaughn does a good job as the hero. Ben Stiller plays basically the same character that he played in "Heavy Weights", but man, does he do it good. His character stole the show completely and Ben definately knows what he is doing with this character. A character that comes close to taking the spotlight from Stiller is Patches O'Houlihan, whom is played by Rip Torn. He is the coach of the Average Joe team and he always has some kind of negative, racist or sexually remark about everything. Many of the other side characters are also funny, the most important fact is that none of them are annoying (well, maybe the pirate).

The movie itself was pretty good. The storyline was good enough the pass. The actual dodgeball scenes were done really well and they were funny. Good characters, not too long and lots of little inserts of the movies, like cameos, that constantly keep the movie funny. That was the most important part of this movie, the fact that the comedy really didn't die out in portions of the movie. It constantly stayed funny, which is hard to say for most comedy movies. Overall, definately check this movie out and you won't be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Wait for the DVD! It's Zoolander part 2.
Review: Basically, you know the story. Vince Vaughn owns a ratty, falling down, looser membership gym accross the street from the Global-Gym owned by ben stiller as an over the top fitness trainer. Basically, ben "I've never turned down a movie role" stiller has two characters he can play. One is the along Came Polly, Meet The Parents, Duplex, middle aged zero-self confidence neurotic nerd, and the other is Derek Zoolander. This is who he played in Dodgeball. It was bascially zoolander all over again. I actually had a chance to see zoolander this weekend because TBS was playing it 37 times in a row, and after seeing Dodgeball, it's obvious that almost all the same things that were funny about dodgeball were the same exact jokes in zoolander. THANK GOD they got vince vaughn, I suppose Owen Wilson was busy doing something so they couldn't get him.
The only thing REALLY good about this movie was rip torns character, the Mr. Miagi of dodgeball himself, who comes out of retirement to coach the underdog team. He was funny.

The jokes were terrible. There weren't nearly enough scenes of the actual dodgeball matches. If you've seen the trailer for this movie, then you've seen probably half of the actual dodgeball game scenes already. They only played ONE GAME before they got in the finals. What a joke. Nearly 99% of the laughs come when somebody gets hit in the balls with a dodgeball, which happens like every scene. Except for when they're getting hit in the balls with a crescent wrench, but you'll have to see the movie to learn about that one.

So, all in all, I really wish I would have waited for this to come out on DVD, and gone and seen Chronicles of Riddick instead.

Rating:
Summary: I Didn't Stop Laughing
Review: I just finished seeing Dodgeball, and I'll say that this is definitely the quirkiest movie that Ben Stiller has made since Zoolander. It's totally off the wall, and it succeeds as one of his funniest comedies.

The things that make this movie great are, primarily, the cast of characters. Stiller himself does a fantastic job as the owner of a massive chain of gymnasiums that is trying to put Vince Vaughn's gym out of business. Ben Still has some very funny lines, and I was definitely reminded of his Zoolander character. He was equally confused, though with much more testosterone. Sort of like what you'd expect Derek Zoolander to behave like if he started popping tons of steroids.

Vince Vaughn was probably my favorite in the movie, coming across as the protagonist who's basically a disorganized, fun-loving guy with a small gym that caters to the "less popular" in society. He has very funny lines, and constantly made me laugh when he was verbally sparring with Ben Stiller's character.

The cast of the gym known as "Average Joes" is just as funny, and many of the best lines come from them. Also, Rip Torn is perfect as a one-time dodgeball champion turned coach who prefers to teach his team to avoid being hit by throwing wrenches at them. The training sequences he puts them through are priceless, as is the eventual dodgeball tournament itself (sponsored by ESPN 8, The Ocho, which specializes in offbeat sports like squirrels water skiing).

Stiller's wife is also in this movie, once again playing the quick-witted professional who eventually falls for the main character and helps him to outwit the evil Globo Gym.

Is it predictable? Totally. Is it formula? No question. But is it fun? Absolutely. In fact, it's almost worth it to watch it twice just for the cameos (David Hasselhoff, Lance Armstrong, William Shatner and Chuck Norris are just a few that come to mind). One final thing, though. This movie is laced with some very adult humor, and it's definitely not for kids (language, many sexual references, and a fairly blatant lesbian scene at the very end). In my mind, the movie suffered for these. Enough to cause me to remove one star.

So if you're seeking something to watch that won't make you think a lot, and will also keep you laughing out loud, this is a great choice. Bottom line is that if you liked 'Zoolander', you'll like this movie. And I loved Zoolander.

Rating:
Summary: "It's Time to Put Your Mouth Where Our Balls Are..."
Review: I saw this movie yesterday with a friend and we both loved it. It's about a guy (Vince Vaughn) who owns a crappy little gym called Average Joe's with only a few very dedicated members. Across the street, there's a bigger, more fancy gym owned by Ben Stiller's charcater. Stiller tries to buy out Average Joe's, but Vaughn and the very dedicated members of his gym simply don't want to leave it. They have to come up with $50,000 to keep the gym, so they all decide to play in a dodgeball tournament with a grand prize of $50,000. Stiller's character finds out, so he and his crew enter the tournament just to beat out Vaughn.

Stiller is amusing in his role, but I don't really think he's that funny. The funniest character in the movie is definetly Patches, the crazy washed-up ex-dodgeball player who trains his team by throwing wrenches at them. Why are the crazy people always so much fun to laugh at?

But anyway, this is a mostly entertaining film. A few jokes fall flat, but for the most part, it'll get the laughs out of you. If you enjoy pirates, crazy people, cheerleaders or the sport itself, dodgeball is for you.

P.S.: THEY MENTION MY BAND'S NAME, "JABBERWOCKY", IN THE MOVIE. How much ass does that kick?

Rating:
Summary: Much funnier than I expected
Review: This is a hilarious movie. I wasn't expecting much out of it, but I ended up laughing during several parts of the movie. You can pretty much tell where the story is going, but it doesn't really matter because this is such a funny and entertaining movie. Vince Vaughn is just as interesting and good at playing a good guy as he is at playing a sleaze. Ben Stiller is appropriately over the top, and his wife Christine Taylor is very good as the love interest for Vince's character. Rip Torn has a small but hilarious role as the Average Joe's dodgeball coach. Stay tuned after the credits for a hilarious bonus scene. I won't give it away, but it is definitely worth staying in your seat for.

If you are looking for a silly, hilarious, and entertaining comedy, you can't go wrong with this movie. It's one of the surprise hits of the summer, and it is one of the most enjoyable movies of the year.

Rating:
Summary: Sorry about the confusion
Review: this is a truly great movie. granted, it is not very pansohic, but nonetheless, it is quite hilarious and the absurdity of it all will leave you gyrating upon the floor of the cinema.