Dodgeball

Reviewed by:
Paul Ulane

In gym class, dodgeball meant bumps, bruises, and either an inflated sense of self or another step toward a lonely and tragic adulthood. In Hollywood, Dodgeball raises the stakes, pitting Ben Stiller against Vince Vaughn in an all-out class war. Stiller plays White Goodman, founder and client of GloBo Gym, the cosmopolitan fitness empire for models and metrosexuals. Peter LaFleur (Vaughn), meanwhile, heads Average Joe's Gym, which is a step down in clientele and headed for bankruptcy. Fortunately for LaFleur, this is an outcast comedy, and a $50,000 Vegas dodgeball tournament thankfully emerges for one last, fleeting chance to save the gym. Goodman's crew enters the competition, too, because, well, shut up. Vaughn sleepwalks through as many barbs and insults as he can to prevent Stiller from overacting himself out of a career. Rip Torn's off-color, wheelchair-bound, washed-up dodgeball superstar delivers the only other memorable character before everything falls apart in a volley of forced cameos by William Shatner, David Hasselhoff, and Chuck Norris. When those efforts miss the mark, a steady flurry of rubber-ball shots to the head, stomach, and groin provide enough laughs to make this slightly more enjoyable than third-period gym. (But only because it won't be followed by a 10-minute swirlie.)

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