Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story Review (250th Review)

Hello, friends!

Before I get into the review, I want to make a special announcement: this is my 250th film review! I have been blogging for about six and a half years, posting my first reviews in July of 2013. If you ignore my six month hiatus in 2018, that averages about one review a week! I know that I’m not always consistent in posting reviews according to a schedule but I’m pretty excited that I have been able to maintain that average, considering I aim for a review at least every other week.

Thank you everyone for your support over the last 250 reviews! It has meant a lot that you have kept coming back and reading my reviews and other posts. You make me truly enjoy blogging. 😀

To be honest, in preparing for this milestone, I actually watched another film to fill this momentous review slot. However, I decided that review would be better suited for the upcoming Ultimate 2000s Blogathon I am co-hosting. In still wanting to keep with the 00 decade theme, I chose to review another of my favorite comedies from the era. And with that, I give you my review of Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story. Enjoy!

---

Synopsis
Peter La Fleur (Vince Vaughn) and his team of misfits from Average Joe’s Gym enter a dodgeball tournament to prevent the gym from being bought by Globo Gym and Globo Gym’s owner and operator, White Goodman (Ben Stiller).

Review
At its core, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story is your basic sports film. A team of oddballs enter a sportsball tournament to combat a team of bullies. It’s basically Rocky or The Replacements but with dodgeball. This kind of story has been done dozens of times over since the invention of cinema. In order to stand out, writer and director Rawson Marshall Thurber puts his own spin on the tale.

This came out during an era of comedy films when movies like Zoolander, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, and Napoleon Dynamite were popular. As such, that is the type of humor you should expect from this film. It’s slapstick to the extreme, a type of comedy that I refer to as ‘stupid funny.’ This type of humor isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but I personally find it enjoyable. That might be because I essentially grew up on this type of humor since many of the comedy movies that were released around that time approached comedy the same way.

The signature of this brand of humor are its characters. One or more are ridiculously over-the-top and exaggerated. Ben Stiller’s White Goodman is just our average workout junkie and evil corporate CEO wrapped into one. Except this is a satire of sports movies so he is the over-the-top one. Opposite him is his Peter La Fleur, the underdog of the tale, played by Vince Vaughn. Rounding out Peter’s ragtag posse trying to save their gym from hostile takeover are Kate Veatch (Christine Taylor), a lawyer who has caught the eye of both White and Peter, Justin (Justin Long) a high school outcast, Gordon (Stephen Root), a connoisseur of obscure sports, Owen (Joel David Moore) and Dwight (Chris Williams), two ex-airport employees, and Steve the Pirate (Alan Tudyk).

Vince is the straight man to Stiller’s funny man. When the two of them are on screen together, they play off each other so well it’s magic. Sometimes a comedy duo works when the pair are friends, like Wedding Crashers, but here, Vaughn and Stiller play enemies and it works splendidly. Vaughn’s timing and deadpan delivery complement Stiller’s crazy antics and exaggerated delivery. If you’ve seen any movie starring Vaughn, you should know exactly what to expect from him. However, Stiller never seems to have a signature style. He is like a chameleon who can adjust to what the films needs. While White may not be as iconic as some of his other roles, Stiller is a perfect fit for the part.

The supporting cast is just as entertaining and hilarious as the two leads. It’s hard to pick a favorite from the group. Justin Long’s body language when he delivers his lines always has me laughing. He makes the most of this when he continuously gets hits by dodgeballs. If you’ve watched Office Space, you know how funny Stephen Root can be. His “L for ‘love’” line is one of my favorites in the whole movie and one that I use myself to this day. Joel David Moore, Chris Williams, and Christine Taylor all also have their own moments to shine and don’t disappoint. And of course I have to bring up the talented Alan Tudyk. His pirate impression makes me wish he’d speak like a pirate all the time! Simply put, everyone does fantastic.

I thought Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story was GREAT 😀 The stand-out cast is the highlight of this film and what makes the humor work. Everyone gives fantastic performances and all have several great and memorable moments. Endlessly quotable, this sports spoof never fails to make me laugh, even after at least a dozen viewings later.

Favorite Quote
White: Nobody makes me bleed my own blood. Nobody!

Trailer

Cast & Crew
Rawson Marshall Thurber – Director / Writer
Theodore Shapiro – Composer

Vince Vaughn – Peter La Fleur
Ben Stiller – White Goodman
Christine Taylor – Kate Veatch
Justin Long – Justin
Stephen Root – Gordon
Joel David Moore – Owen
Chris Williams – Dwight
Alan Tudyk – Steve the Pirate
Rip Torn – Patches O’Houlihan
Jamal Duff – Me’Shell Jones
Missi Pyle – Fran
Gary Cole – Cotton McKnight
Jason Bateman – Pepper Brooks
Hank Azaria – Young Patches O’Houlihan
William Shatner – Dodgeball Chancellor
Julie Gonzalo – Amber
Trevor O’Brien – Derek
Rusty Joiner – Blade
Kevin Porter – Lazer
Brandon Molale – Blazer
Suzy Nakamura – Gordon’s Wife

Wedding Crashers Review

Synopsis
John (Owen Wilson) and Jeremy (Vince Vaughn) are two best friends who look forward to one thing every year: wedding season.  When the pair crashes a high-profile wedding, they get more than they expected when John begins to fall for Claire (Rachel McAdams) and Clare’s sister, Gloria (Isla Fisher), falls for Jeremy.

Review
I can only vaguely recall the first time I watched Wedding Crashers but I do remember thinking that comedies like this are the reason I like the genre so much.  Comedies are seemingly one of the most difficult types of movies to make because humor is so subjective and there is such a high chance that if the jokes fail, the movie fails.  Thankfully, Wedding Crashers doesn’t have to worry about that because it is laugh-out-loud funny. A huge part comes from a memorable and witty script and great casting all around.

Sometimes a comedy duo comes along and they just click. Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn are an example of one such pairing. When the two of them are together, you can’t help but laugh.  Wilson’s Southern, slow and more drawn out delivery complements Vaughn’s more quick and energetic style perfectly.   It is easy to tell that they were having just as much fun playing their parts as we have watching them in the parts.  Their chemistry is simple electric.

Besides Wilson and Vaughn, the rest of the film’s cast was phenomenal as well.  Rachel McAdams has that adorable girl-next-door quality that is easy to fall in love with.  Isla Fisher is fantastic as always, playing the crazy side of her character believably.  Christopher Walken as McAdams’ and Fisher’s father works exactly as you would expect it to.  Bradley Cooper in one of his earlier roles is well cast as the douche bag boyfriend.  One of my surprise favorites was Jane Seymour as Walken’s unfaithful wife. While she doesn’t have as much screen time as the rest, she makes the best of what time she does have.

One thing Wedding Crashers does that most comedies have a hard time doing is fleshing out their characters.  Most often, a comedy relies on its jokes to hide the fact it hasn’t developed its characters deeply.  However, as this movie goes on, you learn a little bit more and more about John (Wilson) and Jeremy’s (Vaughn’s) friendship, Claire’s (McAdams) relationship wish Sack (Cooper), how Sack acts when he is away from Claire, and so much more.  It is rather uncommon for a comedy to develop its characters so much.

For me, two measurements of a great comedy, besides did it make me laugh, are how quotable is it after I finish watching it and do the jokes hold up after multiple viewings. This film easily fulfills both criteria.  At over a decade old, I still laugh at almost every joke and gag, despite knowing the punchline or what is going to happen.  Many of the greatest lines are regularly at the forefront of my mind, ready to be quoted at a moment’s notice.  You couldn’t ask for more out of a comedy.

I thought Wedding Crashers was GREAT 😀 Whenever I think of wedding movies, the first one that comes to mind is almost always this one.  There is just something about this film that I find to be very enjoyable.  Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn just click as the leading duo and the rest of the cast give fun performances as well. If I can keep laughing at a movie even after multiple viewings, then I know that it is a great comedy and I still can’t stop laughing.

Favorite Quote
Jeremy: John, I need to talk to you.
John: No, not right now.
Jeremy: What’s wrong with you? Why do you got the weird look all over your face?
John: Claire’s mom just made me grab her hooters.
Jeremy: Well, snap out of it! What? A hot, older woman made you feel her cans? Stop crying like a little girl.
John: I wasn’t crying like a little girl.
Jeremy: Why don’t you try getting jacked off under the table in front of the whole damn family and have some real problems? Jackass. What were they like, anyway? They look pretty good. Are they real? Are they built for speed or for comfort? What you do with ’em? You play the motorboat? Ppppt! Ppppt! You motorboatin’ son of a bitch. You old sailor, you! Where is she? She still in the house?

Trailer

Cast & Crew
David Dobkin – Director
Steve Faber – Writer
Bob Fisher – Writer
Rolfe Kent – Composer

Owen Wilson – John Beckwith
Vince Vaughn – Jeremy Grey
Rachel McAdams – Claire Cleary
Isla Fisher – Gloria Cleary
Christopher Walken – Secretary Bill Cleary
Jane Seymour – Kathleen Cleary
Bradley Cooper – Sack Lodge
Keir O’Donnell – Todd Cleary
Ellen Albertini Dow – Grandma Mary Cleary
Ron Canada – Randolph
Henry Gibson – Father O’Neil

Christmas in July Blogathon 2015: Four Christmases

And we’ve reached the end of the line. This is the last stop of the blogathon.  I love to get recommendations, so I didn’t have to think hard when trying to figure out which movie to review for this year’s Christmas in July blogathon.  Now I’ll stop blabbering and get onto the review.

---

Synopsis
Brad (Vince Vaughn) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) both come from divorced families. When their vacation to Fiji is canceled because of bad weather, they visit all four parents in one day, which puts their relationship to the test.

Review
Four Christmases starts off in an interesting place. Most Christmas movies are all about wanting to spend time with family. However, Brad and Kate are desperately trying to avoid theirs. Once they realize that they must spend the holiday with their parents, it creeps into the “survive my wacky family” film. It executes this premise fairly well but they go through each parent so quick, no one besides Brad and Kate are fleshed out much. We get to meet Brad’s UFC-fanatic brothers and best friend who is now his step dad, and Kate’s newly reborn mom and her dad, who seems to be the only normal one. Story wise, these characters exist solely to push Brad and Kate closer together. When based on that, then they fulfill their job but getting more time with them would have been good.

I’m a fan of Vince Vaughn, so the comedy worked well for me. There was one scene in particular, where Brad and Kate played Mary and Joseph in the church’s play and Brad went all “I gotta save the play” and started monologuing when Kate forgot her lines, that I really enjoyed. Since most of the time is spent with Brad and Kate, it falls to Vaughn and Witherspoon for the laughs. I like Witherspoon, but I didn’t find myself laughing at her jokes very much. So really, your enjoyment of this film comes down to how funny you find Vaughn. Four Christmases has its issues but overall, it has heart, a meaningful (even if not well executed) message, and offers some good laughs along the way.

Rating
3/5

This movie was recommended by Erin from Dynamite Review.

Trailer

Cast & Crew
Seth Gordon – Director
Mat Allen – Screenplay / Story
Caleb Wilson – Screenplay / Story
Jon Lucas – Screenplay
Scott Moore – Screenplay
Alex Wurman – Composer

Vince Vaughn – Brad
Reese Witherspoon – Kate
Robert Duvall – Howard
Sissy Spacek – Paula
Jon Voight – Creighton
Jon Favreau – Denver
Mary Steenburgen – Marilyn
Dwight Yoakam – Pastor Phil
Tim McGraw – Dallas
Kristin Chenoweth – Courtney
Kay Mixon – Susan
Colleen Camp – Aunt Donna
Jeanette Miller – Gram-Gram
Jack Donner – Grandpa
Zak Boggan – Cody
Skyler Gisondo – Connor
True Bella – Kasi
Patrick Van Horn – Darryl
Cedric Yarbrough – Stan
Brian Baumgartner – Eric

---

As for who I would like to meet under the mistletoe… Alex Morgan.

Cute and amazing at soccer? Yes, please!  I followed this year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup as much as I could.  Like many, many others, I was ecstatic to watch our ladies win the tournament this year. To make her even more awesome, she will be on the box art of FIFA 16, making her the first woman on the cover of a FIFA video game. Woot woot!

And with that, the Christmas in July 2015 Blogathon comes to a close! Thanks to everyone who joined in. Tomorrow I will post the answers to Tim’s Twelve Days of Blu-Rays riddle, so head over there to see how many you can guess, as well as make an announcement of something big that’s coming next week for Drew’s Reviews.

Cheers!

Lightning Review: Couples Retreat

Synopsis
When Jason and Cynthia (Jason Bateman and Kristen Bell) decide to go to a couples resort to strengthen their marriage, they invite their couple friends Dave and Ronnie (Vince Vaughn and Malin Akerman), Joey and Lucy (Jon Favreau and Kristin Davis), and Shane and Trudy (Faizon Love and Kali Hawk).

Review
I’m torn about how I feel about Couples Retreat. On the one hand, I laughed quite a bit and many of the gags were funny. Most of the cast all had several good moments throughout the film. The yoga scene was one of the funniest scenes of the entire movie, if not because of Carlos Ponce’s Salvadore. He absolutely nailed the part. But on the other hand, I didn’t particularly care for the story. There are the stereotypical couples you would expect from this kind of film: the cheating couple, the couple trying to save their relationship, the new couple, and the couple who thinks their relationship is working fine. There isn’t much to draw me towards the characters. Part of the problem for me is Dave and Ronnie’s relationship doesn’t feel like it has much growth compared to the other couples’. Also, I don’t like how Shane’s part of the story was resolved. I’m not sure if “clean” is the right word for it, but it wasn’t I was expecting. Despite a less than engaging story, I strangely found myself enjoying Couples Retreat, probably more than I should have.

Rating
3/5

Favorite Quote
Dave: Is his junk out?
Ronnie: Yup.
Dave: Is his junk literally out of his pants?
Lucy: Yup.
Dave: Now it’s a party.

Trailer

Cast & Crew
Peter Billingsley – Director
Jon Favreau – Writer
Vince Vaughn – Writer
Dana Fox – Writer
A.R. Rahman – Composer

Vince Vaughn – Dave
Malin Akerman – Ronnie
Jason Bateman – Jason
Kristen Bell – Cynthia
Jon Favreau – Joey
Kristin Davis – Lucy
Faizon Love – Shane
Kali Hawk – Trudy
Peter Serafinowicz – Sctanley
Jean Reno – Marcel
Carlos Ponce – Salvadore
Tasha Smith – Jennifer
Temuera Morrison – Briggs
Jonna Walsh – Lacey
Gattlin Griffith – Robert
Colin Baiocchi – Kevin
Vernon Vaughn – Grandpa Jim

The Lost World: Jurassic Park Review

Synopsis
When a British couple stumble upon Isla Sorna, another island filled with dinosaurs, John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) sends Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), survivor of the incident at Jurassic Park four years prior, and a small team to photograph the dinosaurs in the natural habitat to rally support for the island’s isolation before Hammond’s nephew, Peter Ludlow (Arliss Howard), can remove the dinosaurs from the island.

Review
It can be difficult to create a sequel to a movie that perfectly balances action, characterization and humor the way Jurassic Park does. It is even more unlikely to do so successfully with the most obnoxious character as the sequel’s main character. However, The Lost World: Jurassic Park somehow manages to be a decent follow-up by doing just that.

Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) was the character in Jurassic Park that you loved to hate. He is obnoxious but charismatic at the same time. I thought it was interesting that he was the main character in The Lost World. I almost would have expected Alan Grant, played by Sam Neill, to take the spotlight again. There was a sense of humor Goldblum brought to the character, but it is not as prevalent this time around. He still has his funny moments, with Goldblum’s signature humor, but not as much as before. It is clear the character has matured since the last movie.

In Jurassic Park, there was a moral to the story. However, this film tries too much to imitate that message but is unable to do so as strongly. Survival becomes a big part of the story and the movie begins to slip into B-level monster movie territory. It doesn’t make it quite that far, but it comes awfully close.

Every time I watch The Lost World, I forget that Vince Vaughn and Julianne Moore are in it. This movie doesn’t seem like their usual type of film but both do well in their parts. Goldblum was the comic relief in Jurassic Park, this time Richard Schiff has that responsibility. Too bad he didn’t stick around longer because some of his scenes were the most humorous of the film.

The Tyrannosaurus Rex didn’t get as much screen time as I would have expected in Jurassic Park after watching the trailer. Instead, the velocirapotors were the main dinosaurs. In The Lost World that is reversed. Velociraptors have one or two scenes in the middle of the movie but that’s it. Otherwise, the T-Rex is the main dinosaur focused on most in this movie. I really liked that because, after all, the T-Rex is the king of the lizards.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park takes the Jeff Goldblum, the comic relief from Jurassic Park, removes some of his humor and makes him the central character. Somehow this manages to work, if not by himself then with the cast around him, particularly Richard Schiff. This movie tries to have the same moral as the previous film, but begins to degrade into monster movie status when the story becomes about survival. The Tyrannosaurus Rex finally gets the spotlight and velociraptors, the main dinosaur in Jurassic Park, were relegated to only a few scenes. It may not be the perfect sequel, but The Lost World brought dinosaurs back on screen, so that’s something, right?

Rating
3.5/5

Trailer

Cast & Crew
Steven Spielberg – Director
David Koepp – Screenplay
Michael Critchton – Based on a novel by
John Williams – Composer

Jeff Goldblum – Ian Malcolm
Julianne Moore – Sarah Harding
Vince Vaughn – Nick Van Owen
Richard Schiff – Eddie Carr
Vanessa Lee Chester – Kelly Curtis
Pete Postlethwaite – Roland Tembo
Arliss Howard – Peter Ludlow
Peter Stormare – Dieter Stark
Harvey Jason – Ajay Sidhu
Thomas F. Duffy – Dr. Robert Burke
Richard Attenborough – John Hammond