|
New This Week
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search
Upcoming Release Calendar
Awards & Bests By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums
34
10,000 B.C.
37
Air I Breathe, The
52
Be Kind Rewind
47
Boarding Gate
46
Bonneville
42
Bucket List, The
70
Caramel
49
Cassandra's Dream
44
Chaos Theory
54
Charlie Bartlett
64
Chronicle of an Escape
63
City of Men
78
Control
66
Darfur Now
59
Definitely, Maybe
41
Drillbit Taylor
36
Eye, The
46
Finishing the Game
35
Flakes
38
Flash Point
57
Flawless
29
Fool's Gold
41
Funny Games
66
George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead
65
Grace Is Gone
57
Hammer, The
68
Honeydripper
67
In Bruges
xx
Jack and Jill vs. the World
35
Jumper
9
Meet the Spartans
52
My Blueberry Nights
48
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
50
Other Boleyn Girl, The
90
Persepolis
44
Rails & Ties
46
Rambo
36
Remember the Daze
47
Semi-Pro
24
Sex and Death 101
76
Shotgun Stories
63
Signal, The
62
Spiderwick Chronicles, The
12
Strange Wilderness
45
Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns
59
Under the Same Moon
40
Vantage Point
55
Walker, The
37
War, Inc.
46
Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins
60
What Would Jesus Buy?
51
Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights - Hollywood to the Heartland
17
Witless Protection
90
Persepolis
78
Control
76
Shotgun Stories
70
Caramel
68
Honeydripper
67
In Bruges
66
Darfur Now
66
George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead
65
Grace Is Gone
64
Chronicle of an Escape
63
City of Men
63
Signal, The
62
Spiderwick Chronicles, The
60
What Would Jesus Buy?
59
Under the Same Moon
59
Definitely, Maybe
57
Flawless
57
Hammer, The
55
Walker, The
54
Charlie Bartlett
52
Be Kind Rewind
52
My Blueberry Nights
51
Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights - Hollywood to the Heartland
50
Other Boleyn Girl, The
49
Cassandra's Dream
48
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
47
Boarding Gate
47
Semi-Pro
46
Finishing the Game
46
Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins
46
Bonneville
46
Rambo
45
Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns
44
Rails & Ties
44
Chaos Theory
42
Bucket List, The
41
Funny Games
41
Drillbit Taylor
40
Vantage Point
38
Flash Point
37
Air I Breathe, The
37
War, Inc.
36
Remember the Daze
36
Eye, The
35
Jumper
35
Flakes
34
10,000 B.C.
29
Fool's Gold
24
Sex and Death 101
17
Witless Protection
12
Strange Wilderness
9
Meet the Spartans
xx
Jack and Jill vs. the World
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 7.2 (out of 10) based on 90 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Read more user comments...
Discuss this movie in our forums |
|
GameSpot | GameFAQs | SportsGamer | Metacritic | MP3.com | TV.com
