The wife and I saw dodge ball this afternoon and I must say I was pretty disappointed. For a sport that has so much humor in it, this movie failed to bring the full spectrum of laughs to the screen. Maybe its cause the hero in this one isn't really a hero. He's kind of a lazy sleeze ball that has little motivation. It really seemed to be a testament to the lazy working class, settle for mediocrity. You have ben stiller who's this self made gym mogul who's a complete jerk o but you kind of have to respect him since he made this gym empire. Where as you have Vince Vaughn who's this complete bum of a guy, but not one thats endearing like owen Wilson in Starsky and Hutch, he's just a bum for bum's sake. He's a lazy bum, which is kind of just lame. The funniest guy was the Rip Torn as the former retired Dodge Ball super star who teaches the guys the finer points of Dodge. Overall the movie had some really misplaced curse words, crude humor, and overall just this struggle to find a tone of humor and run with it. For instance the movie would be a great movie to take your young teen to except for a few parts that are just sort of kind of ruin it. The way i see it is if you're gonna make a movie crude, make it crude, but this movie was cute and fun, with crude parts thrown in willy nilly just for the sake of getting a PG13 rating. It was just gratuitous and made little sense. Like the final line in the movie "F@#@ing Chuck Norris..." I mean thats just not that funny and not a great note to end any movie on.
When a movie's cruising a long with little obscenities or crude humor, don't just throw it in midstream cause you think its gonna spice up the movie. This movie could have been a great comedy for all ages instead it became a mediocre at best comedy and didn't seem to aim at any age group in particular. Definately not worth the price of admission. I give it a mediocre five out of ten at best, and thats with forcing a few laughs, which i had to do. I mean the "Jonnie loves Chachi line" I love but I've seen it so many times in previews, but I felt that i had to laugh at it since I had found it funny once before, it was a pitty laugh.
If you take the stance that they intended to make a stupid film, I think it becomes more enjoyable. I was dying throughout the film BECAUSE it didn't take itself too seriously.
Ben Stiller's overracting was great, and there can never be enough footage of people being hit with dodgeballs, in my opinion.
Jason Bateman was great, and there was some really great writing.
Sometimes, you just have to watch a dumb film.
As far as foul language is concerned, I noticed it right from the beginning, and, in 2004, it's in pretty much every film--including many pseudo-kids films--which makes for an entirely different discussion...
This film is what it is and what it is is funny.
Again, if you're in the mood to laugh with a dumb movie. I guess I was.
man, the movie sucked in my opinion. Jason Bateman was funny, plus chuck norris in there, but just seemed to me I've seen a bazillion low-brow crude-funny movies, and this was just one more...
Posted by: josiahQ at June 20, 2004 01:12 AMI agree, somewhat with bill, more with roe. It is true if you are in the mood for a funny movie and want to laugh, you will laugh. But a truly funny movie can get a person who isn't in the mood to laugh to laugh. A truly humorous movie can make you forget about all the crap in the world, take you to this funny world, and make you laugh your tail off. THis movie didn't do that for me. And as far as stupid comedies go, Old School had this one beat by about 200 miles.
Posted by: holton at June 20, 2004 10:34 AMWe're going streaking!
Posted by: Strow at June 21, 2004 08:16 AM