Review of DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story (2004) by Filip C — 04 Mar 2012

The writers of this movie were probably assuming that their audience was born yesterday, or possibly earlier this morning. The movie recycles all the possible slapstick comedy cliches, making it so that you can see a joke coming a mile away. Every single line seems straight out of the hat. The visual shtick is accompanied by a few one-liners making a "creative" use of the word "balls".

The film itself attempts to parody a "feel good" genre, getting all the typical plot elements right, if only the humour was something more ambitious that stuff we see in a typical post 2004 Sony pictures/Columbia comedy. Some of the films managed to get away with such material, but we are well past 1980s. This subject matter was explored a thousand times before and in a better fashion.

The only redeeming quality this movie has is the direction and photography. The film is cut well. And they at least tried to make the characters appealing.