The Movie Dodgeball Doesn't Get Enough Respect
Tracy Bennett. Shutterstock Images.Watching Dodgeball again this week for Double Play, I realized I hadn't appreciated it enough. It came out in 2004 during what may be the greatest decade for comedies in film history. Look at some of these hysterical movies that came out during from 2000-09:
The Royal Tenenbaums. Elf. Old School. Stepbrothers. The 40 Year Old Virgin. Wedding Crashers. Borat. Talladega Nights. Knocked Up. Superbad. Role Models. Tropic Thunder. Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Zombieland. Observe And Report. The Hangover. Anchorman.
Those are just the ones that I like a lot personally. I'm sure there are a bunch you might like that I don't even have on there. The wildest thing is any one of the movies listed above would be the best comedy of the 2010's or the 2020's. We had such an embarrassment of comedy riches and it all screeched to a halt when the decade ended.
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There were so many great comedies coming out around that time, it's easy to look past something that while brilliant is also pretty low-key. A lot has to do with the performance by Vince Vaughn. I liked this lazy but likable version of Vaughn a lot. He's the perfect contrast to Ben Stiller's White Goodman. The atmosphere of the movie is so relaxed, it feels like you're just hanging out with friends. It seems like an immensely watchable movie that I honestly haven't rewatched enough.
The greatest strength of the movie is the great ensemble cast. Jason Bateman is at the top of the list as Pepper Brooks which is just shitting on all the X-Games attitudes that were forced down out throat then. Any comedy with two Office Space cast members (Gary Cole and Stephen Root) is going to be funny. I even loved both versions of Patches O'Houlihan.
This was directed and written by Rawson Marshall Thurber. He was only 29 years old and it was his first movie. He's since shifted to making movies with The Rock (Central Intelligence, Skyscraper and Red Notice, which is the movie I forgot on The Dozen and will now hate forever). I would have liked to seen him stick with comedies but it's probably wise of him to shift in that direction because the entire industry shifted away from making funny movies.
Brandon Walker and I discuss both Dodgeball and Baseketball in this episode of DOUBLE PLAY. As always, Brandon's opinions are wrong. You can watch the whole episode below or click HERE to listen: