Review: Dodgeball

Saturday, I went over to Ben's place to watch Dodgeball. You would think that the popularity of the movie and the amount of money it made would be a fairly good indicator of how good the movie was. Sure there are reviews and what not, but most reviews look at a movie outside the scope of just having a good time on a movie night.

With that said, I thought the movie was terrible. Yes, it had its humerous parts, but they weren't the televised jokes in all the promos and commercials. All the humor came out of the one liners from Rip Torn, playing the team's coach. Sure his comments were off color, but they weren't so off color to make it disgusting. They were mostly just rediculous, like a chipmunk humping a doorknob or a poop lollipop.

Throughout the film, I couldn't help but compare it to Shaolin Soccer. When it comes down to it, the stories are pretty much the same. Did the writers of Dodgeball think of Shaolin Soccer when they were writing? I don't know.

The story could be forgivable if the ending wasn't so lametarded (yes, that is a new word). I would be content with the underdogs winning. That's fine. But the whole thing was utterly contrived.

*** Warning: Spoilers ***

Ben Stiller's character approaches Vince Vaugh's character and offers him 100,000$ to sell his Gym. Vince agrees (even though you don't see this on camera, it is pretty obvious). So when this is revealed after the Average Joes win, it's not a big surprise. That's not the contrivance part.

So Vince takes the money that he got from Ben and puts it on his own team which had 50 to 1 odds. Now, if you know anything about betting, when money is put down, it changes the odds. 100,000$ would have shifted the odds tremendously, especially as one huge lump sum. The best that they would hope to get is maybe 5 to 1. Oh, but it gets worse.

Since the Average Joes won the game, they won all this money. Vince uses that money to buy a controlling stake in Globo Gym, Ben Stiller's gym. This would be impossible. First, Globo Gym would have to be a publicly traded company. Second of all, there would have to be enough stock out there and enough people willing to sell their stock in order for Vince to buy a controlling stake in the company. Third of all, SEC law doesn't allow for hostile take overs without the owner's concent. Fourth of all, Vince isn't portrayed as the smartest man around. This is a man with no goals so that when he doesn't reach them, he isn't disappointed. Thus making the ending
completely impossible.

*** End spoilers ***

Like I said before, I would be content with the Average Joes winning. That's fine. But to have them go from nothing to everything is just absurd.

Even without the lame ending, the rest of the movie was just dull and uninspired. The story is mainly a vehicle for the humor, and when most of it isn't funny, you don't have much of a movie.

I give the movie 2/5. Rip Torn saves this film. It's also a decint movie to sit around and watch with your friends. I'm sure alcohol would help with the humor as well.