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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
67
$9.99
75
24 City
66
Adoration
74
Afghan Star
48
Alien Trespass
56
American Violet
82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
57
Away We Go
81
Beaches of Agnes, The
62
Big Man Japan
28
Big Shot-Caller, The
78
Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
55
Brothers Bloom, The
82
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
xx
Call of the Wild
63
Cheri
62
Cherry Blossoms
63
Dead Snow
65
Departures
18
Downloading Nancy
58
Easy Virtue
70
End of the Line, The
77
Every Little Step
64
Examined Life
80
Food, Inc.
38
Gigantic
56
Girl from Monaco, The
67
Girlfriend Experience, The
87
Gomorrah
89
Goodbye Solo
63
Great Buck Howard, The
79
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
xx
Home
82
Hunger
91
Hurt Locker, The
16
I Hate Valentine's Day
81
Il Divo
54
Is Anybody There?
71
Jerichow
58
Julia
74
Lemon Tree
36
Life is Hot in Cracktown
40
Limits of Control, The
42
Little Ashes
64
Lymelife
50
Management
57
Merry Gentleman, The
66
Moon
35
New York
62
Not Forgotten
xx
Offshore
78
O'Horten
64
Outrage
40
Paris 36
54
Pontypool
71
Pressure Cooker
52
Quiet Chaos
83
Revanche
67
Rudo y Cursi
86
Seraphine
65
Sex Positive
70
Shall We Kiss?
77
Sin Nombre
59
Sleep Dealer
74
Song of Sparrows, The
54
Stoning of Soraya M., The
82
Sugar
84
Summer Hours
61
Sunshine Cleaning
28
Surveillance
42
Tennessee
63
Tetro
64
Throw Down Your Heart
80
Tokyo Sonata
63
Tokyo!
70
Tony Manero
74
Treeless Mountain
88
Tulpan
74
Two Lovers
83
Tyson
83
U2 3D
60
Under Our Skin
69
Unmistaken Child
69
Valentino: The Last Emperor
22
What Goes Up
45
Whatever Works
57
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
91
Hurt Locker, The
89
Goodbye Solo
88
Tulpan
87
Gomorrah
86
Seraphine
84
Summer Hours
83
U2 3D
83
Revanche
83
Tyson
82
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
82
Sugar
82
Hunger
82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
81
Il Divo
81
Beaches of Agnes, The
80
Food, Inc.
80
Tokyo Sonata
79
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
78
Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
78
O'Horten
77
Every Little Step
77
Sin Nombre
75
24 City
74
Treeless Mountain
74
Afghan Star
74
Two Lovers
74
Song of Sparrows, The
74
Lemon Tree
71
Pressure Cooker
71
Jerichow
70
Shall We Kiss?
70
Tony Manero
70
End of the Line, The
69
Valentino: The Last Emperor
69
Unmistaken Child
67
$9.99
67
Rudo y Cursi
67
Girlfriend Experience, The
66
Adoration
66
Moon
65
Sex Positive
65
Departures
64
Outrage
64
Examined Life
64
Throw Down Your Heart
64
Lymelife
63
Tokyo!
63
Cheri
63
Dead Snow
63
Tetro
63
Great Buck Howard, The
62
Cherry Blossoms
62
Big Man Japan
62
Not Forgotten
61
Sunshine Cleaning
60
Under Our Skin
59
Sleep Dealer
58
Julia
58
Easy Virtue
57
Away We Go
57
Merry Gentleman, The
57
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
56
Girl from Monaco, The
56
American Violet
55
Brothers Bloom, The
54
Is Anybody There?
54
Pontypool
54
Stoning of Soraya M., The
52
Quiet Chaos
50
Management
48
Alien Trespass
45
Whatever Works
42
Little Ashes
42
Tennessee
40
Limits of Control, The
40
Paris 36
38
Gigantic
36
Life is Hot in Cracktown
35
New York
28
Big Shot-Caller, The
28
Surveillance
22
What Goes Up
18
Downloading Nancy
16
I Hate Valentine's Day
xx
Call of the Wild
xx
Home
xx
Offshore
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
20th Century Fox Film Corporation
MPAA 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.
| GENRE(S): |
Comedy
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Rawson Marshall Thurber
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Rawson Marshall Thurber
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: December 7, 2004
Video: December 7, 2004
Theatrical: June 18, 2004
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
96 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
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.
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.
83
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Hilariously fake and rude. And thus true and tonic, if you know what I mean.
80
Empire
James Dyer
Unpretentious, unsophisticated and all the better for it.
80
Village Voice
Ed Park
Dodgeball is the most satisfying comedy of the past year--at least among the ones starring Stiller.
80
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
The movie's a treasure of small gems.
75
Baltimore Sun
Chris Kaltenbach
Pointed and satiric. Best of all, one must hasten to admit, it's pretty funny.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
70
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
Strangely exhilarating.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
50
Washington Post
Ann Hornaday
Modestly amusing teen summer comedy.
50
Slate
David Edelstein
It's coarse, primitive, regressive, often very stupid, and sometimes, against all odds, really a hoot.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
40
TV Guide
Angel Cohn
Be warned: The end credits contain a particularly nauseating image you'll wish you could delete from memory.
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.
38
Chicago Tribune
Mark Caro
Stiller, a DodgeBall producer, is revealing an unfortunate craving for the cheese of his childhood.
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?
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.
10
Los Angeles Times
Manohla Dargis
Mean-spirited vulgarity and homosexual panic.
 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.
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