DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story (2004)
October 5, 2022 9:35 PM - Subscribe
When megalomaniacal White Goodman, the owner of a trendy, high-end fitness center, makes a move to take over the struggling local gym run by happy-go-lucky Pete La Fleur, there's only one way for La Fleur to fight back: dodgeball. Aided by a dodgeball guru and Goodman's attorney, La Fleur and his rag-tag team of underdogs launch a knock-down, drag-out battle in which the winner takes all.
Average Joe's Gym and its owner, Peter La Fleur (Vince Vaughn), are both down on their luck. A fancy competing gym called Globo-Gym, run by the maniacal health nut White Goodman (Ben Stiller), is about to put Average Joe's out of business unless Peter can raise $50,000 to keep his mortgage. To save the gym, Peter and a ragtag group of Average Joe's members and employees enter a dodgeball contest with a big cash prize. In response, White forms his own Globo-Gym team to rout the competition.
Written and Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber.
71% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
JustWatch listing.
Average Joe's Gym and its owner, Peter La Fleur (Vince Vaughn), are both down on their luck. A fancy competing gym called Globo-Gym, run by the maniacal health nut White Goodman (Ben Stiller), is about to put Average Joe's out of business unless Peter can raise $50,000 to keep his mortgage. To save the gym, Peter and a ragtag group of Average Joe's members and employees enter a dodgeball contest with a big cash prize. In response, White forms his own Globo-Gym team to rout the competition.
Written and Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber.
71% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
JustWatch listing.
This film has no business being this good. Somehow, the scene with Lance Armstrong is even funnier now. And Jason Bateman as Pepper Brooks, providing color commentary on the matches, is amazing.
"it's a bold move Cotton, let's see if it works our for them"
posted by nubs at 2:57 AM on October 6, 2022 [7 favorites]
"it's a bold move Cotton, let's see if it works our for them"
posted by nubs at 2:57 AM on October 6, 2022 [7 favorites]
I absolutely love this movie. The entire cast is amazing-Alan Tudyk, Stephen Root, Missi Pyle, Rip Torn, Hank Azaria, Justin Bateman, Gary Cole, Joel David Moore, and Chris Williams are all amazeballs in addition to the 3 mains Ben Stiller, Christine Tayler and Vince Vaughn. "The Ocho" is still a running gag among my friends.
posted by miss-lapin at 7:31 AM on October 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by miss-lapin at 7:31 AM on October 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
"The Ocho" is still a running gag among my friends.
ESPN ran with it and still replaces a day of normal programming with weird stuff every once in a while.
posted by LionIndex at 7:34 AM on October 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
ESPN ran with it and still replaces a day of normal programming with weird stuff every once in a while.
posted by LionIndex at 7:34 AM on October 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
This film has no business being this good.
I said of Major League that it was "the platonic ideal of sports movies". DodgeBall is the platonic ideal of sports movie parodies, without being so crass and obvious as to act like a parody. Of course it's all absurd, but it's hard to make the transition from "This is absurd..." to "...but I still have to deal with it." Ben Stiller lives in that space (both in front of and behind the camera), and even Vince Vaughn manages to make that leap (rather better than in a lot of his movies).
posted by Etrigan at 7:56 AM on October 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
I said of Major League that it was "the platonic ideal of sports movies". DodgeBall is the platonic ideal of sports movie parodies, without being so crass and obvious as to act like a parody. Of course it's all absurd, but it's hard to make the transition from "This is absurd..." to "...but I still have to deal with it." Ben Stiller lives in that space (both in front of and behind the camera), and even Vince Vaughn manages to make that leap (rather better than in a lot of his movies).
posted by Etrigan at 7:56 AM on October 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
If I didn't know this movie and you described it to me, there would be no way I'd be excited about it, but it really is tightly done and pushes the boundaries just enough.
Other thoughts:
- This is another entry in the world of let's take the very gorgeous Missi Pyle and make her completely unrecognizable.
- Rip Torn leaning into Rip Tornness is fantastic. "Luck of the Irish" - *snert*
- Deus Ex Machina will never not make me laugh. The production designers obviously were having fun.
- Wait, this movie actually kicked off a wave of adult Dodgeball leagues? Huh.
posted by drewbage1847 at 9:05 AM on October 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
Other thoughts:
- This is another entry in the world of let's take the very gorgeous Missi Pyle and make her completely unrecognizable.
- Rip Torn leaning into Rip Tornness is fantastic. "Luck of the Irish" - *snert*
- Deus Ex Machina will never not make me laugh. The production designers obviously were having fun.
- Wait, this movie actually kicked off a wave of adult Dodgeball leagues? Huh.
posted by drewbage1847 at 9:05 AM on October 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
If I find a little orphan child in a war zone, hiding in a burnt out building, his parents murdered, persecuted for his race, his religion, what am I going to do? Pop on Dodgeball on DVD? I can put on Dodgeball and he's going to laugh for an hour and 32 minutes. You know, escape reality for a while, but what happens when the film finishes? Back to reality. Still an orphan, still living with fear. How do I help him, hm? Put on Dodgeball again? Sure he's going to laugh again, he'll see things he didn't see the first time, it's layered, it was made like that, but this can't go on indefinitely, all right? At a certain point, you know, after the fifth, sixth, seventh viewing, he's still laughing, but it's not getting to the root of the problem, okay? How do I help him? Make Dodgeball 2?
posted by Saxon Kane at 9:37 AM on October 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by Saxon Kane at 9:37 AM on October 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
They should have stuck with the original ending where they lose the match to Globo-Gym and immediately cut to the end credits.
posted by Eddie Mars at 10:32 AM on October 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Eddie Mars at 10:32 AM on October 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
This is another entry in the world of let's take the very gorgeous Missi Pyle and make her completely unrecognizable
So, confession time - my wife and I have a very eclectic list of "Christmas movies" (we hate most traditional Christmas movies); it includes Die Hard (family reunites on Christmas Eve and disrupts the heist of an exceptional thief), Galaxy Quest, and Dodgeball (both of which fall into a category of film I like to call "found family of misfits comes together").
Anyways, my weird digression leads to this: My wife pointed out that we have two Alan Rickman films - Die Hard (reader, when I learned she had never seen it, the only selling I had to do was say "Alan Rickman's first film" and I'm not sure I needed the second two words) and Galaxy Quest; I pointed out that Dodgeball has both Missi Pyle and Justin Long from Dodgeball. We may be building our own little "six degrees of Kevin Bacon" thing with our weird Christmas movie list.
Anyways, one of the other odd little things I enjoy in Dodgeball is how often Dwight's little predictions/wishes come to pass.
posted by nubs at 10:58 AM on October 6, 2022 [4 favorites]
So, confession time - my wife and I have a very eclectic list of "Christmas movies" (we hate most traditional Christmas movies); it includes Die Hard (family reunites on Christmas Eve and disrupts the heist of an exceptional thief), Galaxy Quest, and Dodgeball (both of which fall into a category of film I like to call "found family of misfits comes together").
Anyways, my weird digression leads to this: My wife pointed out that we have two Alan Rickman films - Die Hard (reader, when I learned she had never seen it, the only selling I had to do was say "Alan Rickman's first film" and I'm not sure I needed the second two words) and Galaxy Quest; I pointed out that Dodgeball has both Missi Pyle and Justin Long from Dodgeball. We may be building our own little "six degrees of Kevin Bacon" thing with our weird Christmas movie list.
Anyways, one of the other odd little things I enjoy in Dodgeball is how often Dwight's little predictions/wishes come to pass.
posted by nubs at 10:58 AM on October 6, 2022 [4 favorites]
erg, I goofed that up - Missi Pyle and Justin Long are in both Dodgeball and Galaxy Quest.
posted by nubs at 11:36 AM on October 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by nubs at 11:36 AM on October 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
"Dodgeball" Alternate Ending/ Deleted scene
The DVD has this deleted scene with director commentary saying that this is how he really wanted to finish the movie but the studio said absolutely not.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 11:52 AM on October 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
The DVD has this deleted scene with director commentary saying that this is how he really wanted to finish the movie but the studio said absolutely not.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 11:52 AM on October 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
In this case, the studio was absolutely right - in my opinion. I get what they were going for, but I think the absurdly happy happy ending was more in line with the rest of the movie. (Assuming that alternate ending isn't another meta joke)
posted by drewbage1847 at 12:14 PM on October 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by drewbage1847 at 12:14 PM on October 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
The DVD has this deleted scene with director commentary saying that this is how he really wanted to finish the movie but the studio said absolutely not.
That is much funnier but I don't know if I would rewatch the movie as much
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 1:02 PM on October 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
That is much funnier but I don't know if I would rewatch the movie as much
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 1:02 PM on October 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
Certainly it wouldn't be as helpful in cheering up orphaned refugee children.
posted by Saxon Kane at 3:17 PM on October 6, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by Saxon Kane at 3:17 PM on October 6, 2022 [5 favorites]
My husband and I still give a sad, yearning “Y’arrr” sometimes. Better than it ought to be.
posted by tchemgrrl at 11:42 AM on October 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by tchemgrrl at 11:42 AM on October 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
I once watched something called Slippery Slide on The Ocho where people tried to climb up a giant plastic slide covered in lube.
posted by jeoc at 12:02 PM on October 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by jeoc at 12:02 PM on October 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
The alternative ending is absolutely a joke. They are pretty straight faced on the commentary, but its pretty transparent that its a joke
posted by Cannon Fodder at 3:13 PM on October 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Cannon Fodder at 3:13 PM on October 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
"The Ocho" is still a running gag among my friends.
Professional wrestler Chris Jericho won an eighth world championship title and now goes by "The Ocho," which is the funniest thing I've seen in a WHILE.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 7:12 PM on October 7, 2022 [3 favorites]
Professional wrestler Chris Jericho won an eighth world championship title and now goes by "The Ocho," which is the funniest thing I've seen in a WHILE.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 7:12 PM on October 7, 2022 [3 favorites]
Hilarious and endlessly quotable, I just wish the feel-good celebration of misfits didn't feel so comfortable punching down on fat people.
posted by wnissen at 4:32 PM on October 10, 2022
posted by wnissen at 4:32 PM on October 10, 2022
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I realize I like puerile humor, but honestly this movie is gold, from Ben Stiller's inflatable crotch to the color commentary of the final tournament.
posted by Literaryhero at 10:30 PM on October 5, 2022 [5 favorites]