Dodgeball-True Underdog Story (Unrated) (2004)

Entertainment Weekly
"[A] slaphappy send-up of the whole sniffly underdog sports-movie genre, written and directed with a changeup pitch of whizzy aggression and bouncy merriness..." 07/09/2004 p.65

Uncut
"Superb performances from the deadpan Vaughn and the fearless Stiller in one of the funniest films of the year." 09/01/2004 p.132

Sight and Sound
"Vaughn recalls the seemingly effortless shtick Bill Murray trades on, and the unruffled sense of amiability he maintains, even during the daftest bits of knockabout, is the movie's chief pleasure." 10/01/2004 p.52-4

Premiere
"[I]t's a worthy addition to the genre....Thurber and company deliver the goods..." 12/01/2004 p.164

Chicago Sun-Times
"[With] Rip Torn getting enormous laughs with his training methods as their coach..." 12/03/2004 p.11

James Berardinelli's ReelViews 8 of 10
Of course, Dodgeball isn't a true underdog anything, but that's all part of the joke. 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. The approach works because many sports dramas are borderline unintentional parodies with less tension than a flaccid cable; all the filmmakers of Dodgeball had to do was to follow the plot-by-numbers approach, incorporate some obviously comedic material, and toss in a huge dose of over-the-top earnestness. The resulting product offers about 90 minutes of laughter (although the movie runs out of steam during its final third).
 
San Francisco Chronicle 5 of 10
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story isn't a funny movie so much as it's a funny idea. Just the word "dodgeball" is enough to evoke the beginning of a laugh, with its suggestion of grammar school frolic and playground sadism. Throw Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller into the leading roles, and all the comic elements seem there, except for a story and a script. - Mick LaSalle
 
ReelViews 8 of 10
Of course, Dodgeball isn't a true underdog anything, but that's all part of the joke. 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. The approach works because many sports dramas are borderline unintentional parodies with less tension than a flaccid cable; all the filmmakers of Dodgeball had to do was to follow the plot-by-numbers approach, incorporate some obviously comedic material, and toss in a huge dose of over-the-top earnestness. The resulting product offers about 90 minutes of laughter (although the movie runs out of steam during its final third)...Few satires are capable of sustaining their comedic momentum for the length of a full feature film, and Dodgeball is no exception. The film starts out slowly, hits its stride fifteen minutes in, then starts flagging around the two-thirds point. By the time Dodgeball reaches its obligatory conclusion, all of the potential for humor has been burned up. Of course, comedy is subjective, and there are those who will be less-than-enamored with Dodgeball's sophomoric and occasionally vulgar brand of humor. For me, however, it was a pleasant diversion in the midst of a movie season that has been, to this point, a disappointment. - James Berardinelli
 
Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
"Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story" is a title that rewards close study. It does not say it is a true story. It says it is about a true underdog. That is true. This is a movie about a spectacularly incompetent health club owner (Vince Vaughn) who tries to save his club from foreclosure by entering a team in the $50,000 world series of dodgeball in Las Vegas. Proof that the team is an underdog: One of the team members believes he is a pirate, and another team member hasn't noticed that...Vaughn's club, Average Joe's Gym, is run-down and shabby but has a loyal if nutty clientele. Across the street is a multi-million-dollar muscle emporium known as Globo Gym is (there is no "l" in the title, perhaps because it fell off). Globo is owned by Ben Stiller, overacting to the point of apoplexy as White Goodman; his manic performance is consistently funny, especially when he protects against Small Man Complex by surrounding himself with enormous body-builders and building an inflatable crotch into his training pants...I dare not say much more without giving away jokes; in a miraculous gift to the audience, 20th Century-Fox does not reveal all of the best gags in its trailer. Therefore let me just gently say that late in the movie a famous man approaches Peter La Fleur at the airport and gets laughs almost as big as the Patches O'Houlihan training technique. - Roger Ebert