Peter La Fleur must stop White Goodman from owning his gym Average Joe's as he attempts to take over with Globo Gym. Due to the amount of debt he is in La Fleur signs up a team of misfits into a dodgeball tournament with the winners receiving $50,000 which would be enough to keep Average Joe's Gym.
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This is probably quite surprising that I have rated this film so highly due to my difficulty with comedy films, as I find them the toughest genre to get right with humour being even more subjective than anything else. I don't really have many comedy films that I actually find funny. I have therefore avoided Dodgeball up until this point as from the small clips I had previously seen I just didn't think I would find it funny at all.
Now here is a very good reason why you should sometimes given different films a chance because you just might be surprised.
That is how I felt watching this film as quite frankly it is actually very funny. I don't know if this is due to doing quite a lot of dodgeball within PE lessons over the past year but seriously this is over the top at times and quite frankly hilarious.
White Goodman is a horrendous man and pretty much a parody of all the gym owners who think they are outstanding, amazing and the only ones how know about fitness. Another reason I probably found parts of the film funny due to the influx of this behaviour online since the gyms have been closed during lockdown, so I guess we can say the film is not showing any signs of ageing as so many aspects are still occurring now!
If you can dodge a wrench you can dodge a ball - I mean come on Patches O'Houlihan who is brought in as a coach seriously goes for it in that sense! A scene stealing moment from Rip Torn which is quite frankly a joy to watch!
The build up to the dodgeball tournament is done in the best possible way and I think the mixture of Peter's team of people who don't fit in anywhere other than Average Joe's gym was another reason the film just worked. They wanted to do the dodgeball to save the only place that they actually feel safe and liked. I think that is always important to remember about any type of sporting activity that you will always find likeminded people.
Ben Stiller is great as White Goodman as you just really hate everything about his sleazy nature and want to see him utterly fail. Vince Vaughn does this more straight comedy role so very well and I think I actually do have a bit of a soft spot for (some) of his films. In this it evens out Stiller's over the top nature so nicely. Christine Taylor, Rip Torn, Justin Long and Alan Tudyk were the stand out in supporting roles for me. Little surprise smaller moments for Jason Bateman and Hank Azaria was very enjoyable. Although the Lance Armstrong moment may not have aged very well!
Overall though I have found a comedy film that I actually think is funny!
