Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story

Rawson Marshall Thurber’s debut, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story follows Vince Vaughn’s Peter La Fleur as he attempts to save his fledgling gym by entering a prestigious dodgeball tournament – with the character and his ragtag team receiving strong competition from a pompous figure named White Goodman (Ben Stiller). Filmmaker Thurber, working from his own screenplay, delivers a watchable yet far-from-engrossing comedy that seems to have emerged directly from a template for movies of this ilk, as Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story generally unfolds exactly as one might’ve anticipated and contains little in the way of innovative plot developments or revelations – although, to be fair, it’s fairly clear that Thurber is utilizing a familiar structure to lampoon an exceedingly hoary genre. There is, as such, little doubt that the picture boasts a somewhat hit-and-miss feel that’s dependent entirely on which jokes and performances are succeeding at any given moment, with the movie, in terms of the latter, certainly benefiting from the charismatic work of its various stars. (Vaughn and Stiller are quite good here, of course, but it’s Rip Torn, cast as a grizzled veteran of the dodgeball scene, who turns in the picture’s most consistently engaging and engrossing work.) The predictable feel-good finale isn’t, as a result, quite able to pack the captivating punch that Thurber has undoubtedly intended, which finally does cement Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story‘s place as a perfectly passable endeavor that’s rarely as laugh-out-loud hilarious as it should’ve been.

**1/2 out of ****