Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story

Mark:

Dodgeball may be the worst film I’ve seen this year, and I’ve seen a few stinkers… Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! for example. The only thing saving it from entering the all-time worst list is Rip Torn.

Whenever a movie has more cameos by long-gone tv stars than true actors, you can be sure it’s gonna suck. This fate is never more clearly demonstrated than here – Jason Bateman, David Hasselhoff, Chuck Norris, William Shatner and Gary Cole anyone?? It’s not only the poor script, the bad direction, the abysmal acting… the subject material is tired and was never going to allow this film to shine. This is definitely one of those films made purely on the basis of having one star, indicating a massive lack of judgement on behalf of the money men.

Rip Torn, as mentioned, is passable, but he is so far ahead of his co-stars, it seems he shines. The 10-15 minutes where he struts his stuff is the only period of worth in this entire film. The grumpy old man with the gruff voice makes Stiller and Vaughn look like the washed-out never-weres they are.

What does Christine Taylor do in between bad Ben Stiller comedies? IMDb has nothing listed for her since Zoolander, and although she is not awful in Dodgeball, I can’t see this doing her career any good. Maybe she should have stuck with Brady Bunch sequels.

There is really nothing more I can say – this is a terrible film, just awful, with only Rip Torn to lift it up from a zero.

Rating: 0.5 stars
Review by Mark Lavercombe, 1st January 1970
Hoopla Factor: 0.5 stars


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