2004 sports comedy film by Rawson Thurber
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story is a 2004 sports comedy film written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber and starring Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller. The film follows a group of unlikely misfits who enter a Las Vegas dodgeball tournament in the hopes of winning $50,000 to save their cherished local gym from being taken over by corporate health fitness chain Globo Gym.
Theatrically released by 20th Century Fox on June 18, 2004, the film received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $168.4 million on a $20 million budget. A sequel is in development.[3][4]
Plot
Peter LaFleur owns Average Joe's, a small, dilapidated gym with low membership and staffing. When he defaults on the gym's mortgage, his cocky and vindictive business rival White Goodman, who owns Globo Gym across the street, purchases it, planning to foreclose on and demolish Average Joe's to build a new auxiliary parking structure for his members unless Peter can raise $50,000 in 30 days. Goodman attempts to seduce attorney Katherine "Kate" Veatch, who is handling his account; repulsed, she cites conflict of interest (COI) to rebuff his disturbing advances.
Peter, gym employees Dwight Baumgarten and Owen Dittman, and members Steve "Pirate" Cowan, Justin Redman, and Gordon Pibb unite to raise the required money. After an impromptu car wash suggested by Owen fails, Gordon suggests entering a dodgeball tournament in Las Vegas with a $50,000 grand prize. Justin obtains a 1950s-era training film featuring Irish-American dodgeball legend Patches O'Houlihan, which the group watches before participating in the sub-regional qualifiers the following day. Girl Scout Troop 417 easily defeats them, but one member's use of three separate types of anabolic steroids and a low-grade beaver tranquilizer results in their disqualification, effectively naming Average Joe's the winner by default.
Having spied on Average Joe's using a hidden camera in a cutout of himself, Goodman forms his own team, the Globo Gym Purple Cobras, surprising Gordon by revealing that his extremely personal friendship with the chancellor allowed him to bypass the mandatory qualification match. After watching their confrontation, Patches, now an elderly man who uses a wheelchair, approaches Peter, volunteering to coach the team. Patches' unusual training regimen involves having them dodge wrenches, oncoming cars, and his constant insults. Kate demonstrates skill at the sport but declines to join the team, citing COI. Goodman arrives at Kate's house uninvited and announces that he misled her bosses about her stealing and drinking on the job, thus getting her fired from her law firm and freeing him to date her. Enraged, but now free of COI, she rejects Goodman and joins the Average Joe's team.
Despite early setbacks, the team advances to the final round against Globo Gym. The night before the match, a falling sign in the casino kills Patches. Returning to his room, Peter encounters an uninvited Goodman, who greedily offers him $100,000 for the deed to Average Joe's, claiming that Peter will inevitably cause its closure. Demoralized, and anxious that the team will lose without Patches's motivation, Peter chastises Steve's pirate behavior upon returning to the group, causing Steve's departure. The day of the final round, Justin assists his classmate and love interest Amber in a cheerleading competition after his bully and rival Derek becomes severely injured, leaving Average Joe's short of players. Peter briefly encounters Lance Armstrong, who restores his morale, and rejoins his team, but he and Justin return too late; Average Joe's has already forfeited. After Gordon discovers that a majority of the judges can overturn the forfeiture, the tie-breaking vote from Chuck Norris reinstates the team.
After an intense game, Peter and Goodman have a sudden-death match. Inspired by Patches' spirit, Peter blindfolds himself, evades Goodman's throw and strikes him in the face, winning the championship and the prize money. Goodman nullifies the victory, revealing that Peter sold Average Joe's to him the previous night, but Peter explains he used Goodman's $100,000 to bet on Average Joe's victory; with the odds against them at 50 to 1, he collects $5 million. Since Globo Gym is a publicly traded company, Peter purchases a controlling interest in it, thus regaining Average Joe's and firing Goodman. Steve returns, now appearing more normal, but revives his pirate persona when Peter reveals their winnings as "buried treasure". Joyce, a friend of Kate's who caught an earlier flight from Guam to witness the final match, arrives and kisses her passionately, shocking Peter, but Kate then reveals her bisexuality and kisses Peter similarly. Kate becomes Peter's girlfriend, Justin and Amber get married with a baby on the way, and Owen begins dating Fran Stalinovskovichdaviddivichski from the Globo Gym team. Later on, Peter opens youth dodgeball classes at a newly renovated Average Joe's, while a disgraced Goodman returns to morbid obesity, blaming Norris for his plight.
Production
When the film was screened to test audiences, the original ending had Average Joe's lose to Globo Gym in the final match. After the ending was viewed negatively by the test audiences, the sudden death match and Average Joe's winning the dodgeball tournament were added alongside White going back to obesity.[10][11]
Copyright lawsuit
In 2005, two New York City screenwriters, David Price and Ashoka Thomas, filed suit in federal court against Fox and Thurber, claiming copyright infringement of an unproduced screenplay they had written, Dodgeball: The Movie, by Thurber and Fox. They alleged there were a number of similarities in the plots of the two screenplays, and that Thurber may have had access to their screenplay, which was finished a month before his and submitted to an agent whose assistant he was acquainted with.[12] Lawyers for the defendants dismissed some of the allegations as coincidental. They said that both screenplays were the work of writers who used common formulaic elements. Judge Shira Scheindlin denied the defense motion for summary judgment and ordered a jury trial.[13][14] The suit was later settled out of court.[15][16]
Reception
Box office
In its first week, the film grossed over $29 million, and would go on to a domestic gross of $114.3 million,[17] and a worldwide total of $167.7 million.[18]
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 71% of 165 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.3/10. The website's consensus reads: "Proudly profane and splendidly silly, Dodgeball is a worthy spiritual successor to the goofball comedies of the 1980s."[19] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 55 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[20] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[21]
Slant Magazine dismissed the film as "a less-than-one-joke film",[22] while TV Guide remarked that Ben Stiller "doesn't know when to stop".[23] Other critics, such as The Boston Globe, praised Stiller's satirical take on male virility and praised the chemistry between Vince Vaughn and Christine Taylor.[24] Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal initially declined to review the film, believing it was not worthy of his time. However, after reviewing the DVD, he changed his view, writing, "Mea culpa, mea culpa. Rawson Marshall Thurber's debut feature, starring Ben Stiller opposite Vince Vaughn, is erratic, imbecilic if not completely idiotic, inconsequential in even the small scheme of things, and thoroughly entertaining".[25] Roger Ebert gave the film a three stars out of four rating in his Chicago Sun-Times review and writes "in a miraculous gift to the audience, 20th Century-Fox does not reveal all of the best gags in its trailer."[26]
Awards
- 2004 ESPY Awards
- Best Sports Movie – Nominated
- 2005 BMI Awards
- Best Film Music, Theodore Shapiro – Won
- 2005 MTV Movie Awards
- Best Comedic Performance, Ben Stiller – Nominated
- Best On-Screen Team (Vince Vaughn, Christine Taylor, Justin Long, Alan Tudyk, Stephen Root, Joel Moore and Chris Williams) – Nominated
- Best Villain, Ben Stiller – Won
- 25th Golden Raspberry Awards
Legacy
Sequel
On April 22, 2013, it was announced that 20th Century Fox has started developing a sequel to the film, with Clay Tarver writing the script and Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn returning to star.[27] However, Ben Stiller later stated that he wasn't aware a Dodgeball sequel was happening.[28] A reunion video featuring the cast entitled Play Dodgeball with Ben Stiller was released online in June 2017, announcing a competition to raise funds for the Stiller Foundation.[29]
On April 27, 2023, it was announced that 20th Century Studios had re-begun production on a sequel, with actor Vince Vaughn set to return, and possibly serve as a producer on the new film.[30]
ESPN8: The Ocho
On August 8, 2017, ESPN paid homage to its lampooned portrayal in Dodgeball by airing a day-long "ESPN8: The Ocho" marathon on its college sports channel ESPNU. In the spirit of the programming depicted in the film, it consisted of lesser-known and unconventional sports and competitions—including trampoline dodgeball, darts, disc golf, kabaddi, and roller derby.[31][32] The stunt was reprised the following two years on ESPN2, and also included airings of Dodgeball.[33][34]
Due to a lack of live sports programming during the COVID-19 pandemic, ESPN announced on March 22, 2020, that it would reprise the stunt earlier than scheduled on ESPN2.[35] It did it on May 2, 2020, on ESPN, and then August 8, 2020, on ESPN2 as well as the Big Screen in Fortnite Party Royale. A collection of sports that were featured on ESPN8, as well as the ESPN8 broadcast on these said networks, were available on the ESPN app.
The program was held again on ESPN2 on August 3, 2023.[36][37]
Home video
The DVD and Blu-ray releases all contain various outtakes and deleted scenes including an alternate ending as well as an infamous "Easter Egg" in the form of a spoof director's commentary.
The directors commentary track starts out in the traditional fashion with the director and co-stars but soon adds in extra characters and descends into a largely unrelated comedy experience. Halfway through a seemingly chaotic recording, it stops and is replaced by the directors' commentary for There's Something About Mary.
