Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5475 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-01-31
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 88 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
How's this for impressive trivia: Dodgeball faced off against The Terminal in opening-weekend competition, and 29-year-old writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber aced Steven Spielberg by a score of $30 to $18.7 in US box-office millions. That's no mean feat for a newcomer, but Thurber's lowbrow script and rapid-fire direction--along with a sublime cast of screen comedians--proved to be just what moviegoers were ravenous for: a consistently hilarious, patently formulaic romp in which the underdog owner of Average Joe's Gym (Vince Vaughan) faces foreclosure unless he can raise $50,000 in 30 days. The solution: A dodgeball tournament offering $50K to the winners, in which Vaughan and his nerdy clientele team up against the preening, abhorrently narcissistic owner (Ben Stiller) of Globo Gym, who's threatening a buy-out. That's it for story; any 5-year-old could follow it with brainpower to spare. But Thurber, Vaughan, Stiller, and their well-cast costars (including Stiller's off-screen wife, Christine Taylor) keep the big laughs coming for 96 nonsensical minutes. With spot-on cameos by champion bicyclist Lance Armstrong, David Hasselhoff, Hank Azaria, Chuck Norris, and William Shatner, and a crudely amusing coda for those who watch past the credits, Dodgeball is no masterpiece, but you can bet Spielberg was unexpectedly humbled by its popular appeal. --Jeff Shannon

Synopsis
In DODGEBALL - A TRUE UNDERDOG STORY, Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn team up once again (following STARSKY AND HUTCH) for another comic romp. While hilariously satirizing modern-day gym culture, the film also celebrates a sport that has previously been relegated to the elementary school playground. Peter La Fleur (Vaughn) owns the decrepit Average Joe's gym, which has been losing its clients ever since the glitzy Globo Gym opened up across the street. White Goodman (Stiller), Globo Gym's main spokesman, is a preposterously vain egomaniac on the cusp of taking over La Fleur's failing business. La Fleur learns from a beautiful attorney (Christine Taylor) that if he doesn't come up with $50,000 in 30 days, his career running a gym will be over. Potential salvation arrives in the form of a Las Vegas dodgeball tournament, but conquering a sport one hasn't played in several decades isn't such an easy feat. Fortunately for Peter, he finds a coach for his team: the hardheaded, ex-superstar Patches O'Houlihan (Rip Torn). As Peter and his ragtag team make their way to the championship in Las Vegas, they must contend with White, who has assembled a team of his very own. Rawson Marshall Thurber's debut feature is a highly assured work, which features hilarious cameos from Chuck Norris, Lance Armstrong, David Hasselhoff, and William Shatner.

Customer Reviews

A sport of Violence so obviously very FUNNY!
Dodgeball is silly. It is mad. It is mindless...
But it is also increadably entertaining and side-splittingly funny.
One of those movies where you can have an ultimately relaxing viewing.

The underdogs are the guys at Average Joe's Gym, where owner Peter La Fleur (Vince Vaughn) takes a low-key approach to the health and physical fitness of his loyal and eccentric members. This is in stark contrast to the high intensity environment across the street at Globo Gym, where White Goodman (Ben Stiller) has made narcissism an art form. La Fleur is informed by attorney Kate Veatch (Christine Taylor) that he has 30 days to come up with $50,000 or lose his gym to (wait for it) Goodman.
It looks like all is lost until the gang at Average Joe's Gym discover that the American Dodgeball Association of America is having its national tournament and the winning teams gets (wait for it) $50,000.

And the perfect partner for this movie would be the Anchorman!

I Really Didn't Want To Like This...But It Was Great.
One of the dumbest feel-good movies of recent times...but isn't that it's very reason for existing?

Vince Vaughn stars as Peter LaFleur, an under-achiever with a lot of charisma. His gym is rundown and about to be taken over by White Goodman, played by Ben Stiller. Goodman is LaFleur's rival, he owns Globo Gym and is an egomaniacal fitness freak who places physical prowess above all else.

LaFleur desperately needs money to rescue his gym, Average Joe's, and so tries to win it by entering his team of useless gym members in a Dodgeball tournament. They find themselves squaring off against the Globo Gym team, in a winner-takes-all showdown.

It is very predictable, and puerile, of the sort that the Farrelly brothers have made their trademark. Yet somehow, it manages to rise above these limitations and offer plenty of laugh-out-loud moments.

Rawson Marshall Thurber, director, finds increasingly absurd ways of putting his performers in harm's way, and the training sequences are some of those times. As you watch Average Joe's underdogs being coached by a wheelchair-bound former Dodgeball champion, you will be laughing hysterically. Their coach, Patches O'Houlihan is played by Rip Torn in his robust, dirty old man mode, and he has interesting ideas of teaching. Afterall, if they can dodge a spanner, or a car, surely they can dodge a ball easily.

Meanwhile, White's over-inflated ego produce all manner of cringe-worthy scenarios, whether it's trying to woo his legal advisor (his real-life wife Christine Taylor), or by reading a dictionary, 'To stay in mental shape too'. Ben Stiller knows the 'cringe factor' like the back of his hand.

The casting is definitely a large part of what makes the film work so well. Stiller and Vaughn are both very amusing, and obviously enjoying themselves. Vaughn uses his on-screen smooth talking coolness to deliver a life-long loser that the audience really get behind.

Stiller, just about manages to stay the right side of annoying, and his character is meant to be more than a little irritating anyway. How he managed to stop laughing long enough to film, when he is sporting a 'power-mullet', is unknown, but surely took a lot of skill!

A fair few cameos keep the movie lively, amongst which were Hank Azaria, David Hasselhoff, Chuck Norris, and William Shatner. They all add a little something to the film.

It is in no way complex, choosing a childlike level of laughter with a wanton disregard for taste. It has a lot of energy though, and even those determined not to enjoy it, will likely find themselves chuckling along anyway.

With a tagline, 'Grab life by the balls' what else were we really expecting?

Dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge.
This movie features the owners of two very different gyms. On one hand you have White Goodman (Ben Stiller) the intense owner, operator and founder of Globo Gym America and Peter Leflur (Vince Vaughn) the laid back owner of Average Joes Gymnasium.

At the out set Leflur finds himself in severe financial diffs facing the prospect of losing everything, including his gym! With foreclosure looming Pete discovers that Goodman is proposing to buy out his mortgage so that he may flatten Average Joes to build a car park for Globo Gym, that is unless Pete can make $50,000 in 30 days!
After a few failed attempts to raise the cash the opportunity arises to enter the national dodgeball championships via a regional qualifier. On hearing of Average Joes entry, Goodman also gets a team together to compete against them in order to prove a point, and ruin Pete Leflur for good.

I really enjoyed this movie, Stiller is brilliant as White Goodman and likewise Vaughn was superb as Pete Leflur, with some other great performances not least Rip Torn as dodgeball legend and former 5 time all star Patches O'Hoolahan.
The film has some great scenes and many hilarious characters, the plot is simple and obvious making this a superb laugh out loud flick.