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Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story

EMAILPRINT20th Century Fox Film Corporation

Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story reviews
55
7.1 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 34 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 94 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Comedy

Written by: Rawson Marshall Thurber

Directed by: Rawson Marshall Thurber

Release Date:
Theatrical: June 18, 2004
DVD: December 7, 2004

Running Time: 96 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: PG-13 for rude and sexual humor, and language

Starring Vince Vaughn, Christine Taylor, Ben Stiller, Rip Torn, Justin Long, Stephen Root, Joel Moore, and Chris Williams

A group of friends from Average Joe's agrees to compete in a high-stakes dodgeball competition in Las Vegas in an attempt to save their gym from takeover by the national chain Globo Gym.

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

88

Premiere Peter Debruge

Take it from someone who can still feel the hollow rubber tang! of old dodgeball scars: It feels great to be blindsided by a little movie like this.

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83

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

If you hold a perverse soft spot in your heart for straight-to-video underdog junk like "Ski School," you're going to love Dodgeball.

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83

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Hilariously fake and rude. And thus true and tonic, if you know what I mean.

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80

Empire James Dyer

Unpretentious, unsophisticated and all the better for it.

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80

Village Voice Ed Park

Dodgeball is the most satisfying comedy of the past year--at least among the ones starring Stiller.

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80

Washington Post Desson Thomson

The movie's a treasure of small gems.

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75

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Pointed and satiric. Best of all, one must hasten to admit, it's pretty funny.

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75

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Ben Stiller is like a guy on the 1919 White Sox. He's rigged to lose. His comedy is the stuff of failure, and sometimes it's pleasurable watching him flit around in funny get-ups, only to have a pretty costar put him down.

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75

ReelViews James Berardinelli

A blistering satire of feel-good sports movies, this film makes its mark via the most direct route: it lampoons by adopting the tried-and-true "straight" formula and tweaking it a little.

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75

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

In a miraculous gift to the audience, 20th Century-Fox does not reveal all of the best gags in its trailer.

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75

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

There are some clunky, juvenile jokes and an excess of shots to that special place on men that make us double over and weep. But there are some very funny, very hip jokes as well.

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70

Variety Joe Leydon

Gleefully commingles slapstick and scatology, satire and sentiment, in a free-wheeling farce aimed at making auds laugh until they're thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

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70

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Strangely exhilarating.

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70

Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson

Writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber (the short "Terry Tate: Office Linebacker") keeps the jokes coming fast and furious, and while none of them are deep, many find their mark.

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67

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

It may not be original, but it's often shamelessly funny and more clever than I expected. Not much, mind you, but enough to catch me off guard with a few surprise throws.

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63

USA Today Mike Clark

Coach Torn adds to a palpably violent undertone by heaving wrenches at their heads and crotches, making The Three Stooges' poking and slapping look downright tame.

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60

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Nobody eviscerates the scary depths of male narcissism with such ferocity, and it is a huge relief to find Mr. Stiller flexing his oiled, low-comedy triceps with such vengeful glee.

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50

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Mostly, Dodgeball just feels off--never consistently funny, but also never dire. It's as if Thurber resigned himself to making a dumb, formula-bound movie with a dusting of smart gags instead of a smart movie in dumb-movie clothes.

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50

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Modestly amusing teen summer comedy.

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50

Slate David Edelstein

It's coarse, primitive, regressive, often very stupid, and sometimes, against all odds, really a hoot.

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50

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

In outline, the story is pretty funny, and the film's outlandish takes on sports-movie conventions deliver some laughs. But Thurber chooses the low road to those laughs so often that he undermines his own satirical design. His actors certainly deliver amusing, spirited performances, but again, they get done in by relentless adolescent humor.

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50

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

There's a place in life for movies like this – goofy and lowbrow but never truly icky; the good guys are lovable losers and the bad guys have frosted feathered hair and unitards with inflatable codpieces.

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50

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Yes, the movie's watchable, and there are about six good laughs in it, but six good (not great) laughs in 90 minutes is pretty paltry for a comedy.

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50

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

As the WWF-style villain, Stiller misfires again and again, but Vaughn is reliably funny and Rip Torn has a great part as the underdogs' crotchety old coach.

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50

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Much of Dodgeball feels competent but lazy. The nerds are barely distinguishable, except for one who thinks he's a pirate and says arghh a lot to no humorous effect.

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50

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The movie veers from cleverness to crass stupidity. You can never tell whether the next scene will induce loud laughter or contempt; for me, Dodgeball divided right down the middle.

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50

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

In Dodgeball, Vaughn is stuck playing the straight man to a collection of stooges, and he looks utterly bored doing it.

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40

LA Weekly Robert Abele

For a while, Vaughn's slobbo guy charm and Stiller's creepy Flash Gordon aesthetic are amusing, but it isn't long before Vaughn looks like a Bill Murray disciple trapped among circus freaks, and Stiller runs out of weirdo tricks.

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40

TV Guide Angel Cohn

Be warned: The end credits contain a particularly nauseating image you'll wish you could delete from memory.

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38

New York Post Megan Lehmann

Ben Stiller's overbearing schtick officially reaches its expiration date with the desperate and puerile Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.

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38

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

Stiller, a DodgeBall producer, is revealing an unfortunate craving for the cheese of his childhood.

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38

Philadelphia Inquirer David Hiltbrand

Anyone with a sizable role in Dodgeball gets mired in the script's dissipated tone. Two of the climactic jokes involve "Happy Days" references. How tenuous is that?

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25

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Stiller strives to be a wild and wacky villain, Vaughn endeavors to be a likable and average hero, and both fall flat on their faces, like everything else in this unspeakably stupid comedy.

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10

Los Angeles Times Manohla Dargis

Mean-spirited vulgarity and homosexual panic.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 7.1 (out of 10) based on 94 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Rodrigo D gave it a0:
Probably the worst movie I have ever seen.

STFUMETA gave it a10:
Funny, crazy and entertaining. Anyone expecting tear-summoning acting or awe-inspiring plots needs to redefine their ideas of the comedy genre. It's funny and you can watch it over and over again. Simply fantastic.

John H gave it a10:
I would have given it a 0, but Chuck Norris would kill me.

Jay R gave it a10:
Simply the funniest film I have ever seen!

c h gave it a5:
Looking at both the user reviews, the professional reviews, and just from what I hear from my friends, Dodgeball is a very hit or miss movie. You either love it or you dont. Truth be told, I did not. This comedy is geared more towards the slapstick fans and not quite so much for the verbal bits. Since slapstick was never my thing, I sat through the entire movie with a blank face. What's sad is that the funniest bits of the movie were all put in the trailer, so there's really no reason to waste your time on this one.

Adam R. gave it a10:
Don't listen to metacritic this time. I was expecting it to be at least higher than 80. It should have been a hundred. !0 out of 10. Great movie!

Joel H gave it a5:
It's not a good movie...but it is very fun to watch. With a comedy, thats all I care about.

Read more user comments >

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