This page was created on June 23, 2004
This page was last updated on June 26, 2004

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Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber
Screenplay by Rawson Marshall Thurber

Cast (in credits order)
Vince Vaughn .... Peter La Fleur
Christine Taylor .... Kate Veatch
Ben Stiller .... White Goodman
Rip Torn .... Patches O'Houlihan
Justin Long .... Justin
Stephen Root .... Gordon
Joel Moore .... Owen
Chris Williams .... Dwight
Alan Tudyk .... Steve the Pirate
Missi Pyle .... Fran
Jamal Duff .... Me'Shell Jones
Gary Cole .... Cotton McKnight
Jason Bateman .... Pepper Brooks
Hank Azaria .... Young Patches O'Houlihan
Al Kaplon .... Tournament Referee
Lance Armstrong .... Himself
Chuck Norris .... Himself
William Shatner .... Dodgeball Chancellor
David Hasselhoff .... German Coach
Julie Gonzalo .... Amber
Trever O'Brien .... Derek
Cayden Boyd .... Timmy
Rusty Joiner .... Blade
Kevin Porter .... Lazer
Brandon Molale .... Blazer
Suzy Nakamura .... Gordon's Wife
Lori Beth Denberg .... Martha Johnstone

Produced by
Stuart Cornfeld .... producer
Mary McLaglen .... executive producer
Rhoades Rader .... executive producer
Ben Stiller .... producer

Original Music by Theodore Shapiro
Cinematography by Jerzy Zielinski
Film Editing by Alan Baumgarten

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for rude and sexual humor, and language.
Runtime: 92 min
For rating reasons, go to FILMRATINGS.COM, and MPAA.ORG.
Parents, please refer to PARENTALGUIDE.ORG

I recently decided to go see Dodgeball, the new movie with Ben Stiller, Rip Torn, and Vince Vaughn, among others. I fully expected to come away from the movie disgusted and disturbed -- and was I ever right! Not since the Farley Brothers has anyone made a movie that so blatantly attempts to offend everyone as does this film by Rawson Marshall Thurber: this weekend’s top box office smash Dodgeball.

In some ways, Rawson Thurber makes the Farley Brothers look like Mother Theresa. I can't say it any clearer: if you see this movie, you are asking to be offended. What we have in this little film is extreme junior high humor and adult slapstick comedy, and it didn’t take long for me to be offended by this movie. In fact, if I had actually been counting every appearance of objectionable material, I would have assigned this movie an F for failure within the first 5 minutes of the opening scenes. Thankfully, I decided to give the movie a complete screening and response before settling on my judgment.

Dodgeball is, in some ways, not unlike many other stories of this type: a group of misfits, challenged by the upper echelon of society, decides to fight back and make a stand for themselves. Peter La Fleur, played by brilliant actor Vince Vaughn, operates a small gym called Average Joes. Average Joes in many ways is for the average person, the person who goes to the gym for many of the same reasons a person might go to a bar. The opening scenes in Average Joes could have very well used the theme song from the television sitcom, Cheers, a place where everybody knows your name. Unfortunately, it appears that the cost of developing genuine friendships, as opposed to developing good business sense, has left Average Joes in foreclosure unless they can come up with $50,000.

Across the street from Average Joes is the gym run by White Goodman, played to a tee by Ben Stiller. His gym, Global Gym, has the slogan “We’re better than you and we know it.” Stiller plays a character very similar to his role in 1995 as Tony Perkis in the movie Heavyweights. Portraying the macho gym or workout guy, Stiller is hard to watch at times as he plays the part with a ferocity that causes the viewer to genuinely want someone to take him out. The real challenge is recognizing that we, the audience, are White Goodman, we are the ones who have forgotten where we have come from and the people around us. Thurber, in his genius, gives us all someone to identify with. White is the character that we are to learn lessons from, but those lessons aren’t necessarily going to be good ones.

With the band of misfits from Average Joes, Gordon, played wonderfully by Stephen Root (the voice of Bill in the television comedy, King of the Hill), comes up with the idea that the group put a team together to participate in the Las Vegas Dodgeball tournament. White and the rest of Global Gym decide to form a team of their own -- to make sure their takeover plan succeeds. Along the way, there is some rather sick humor. But we can’t help but laugh, because usually we are seeing situations that we ourselves have lived through many times. One of the challenges of this movie is self-reflection, of realizing that we as viewers are amused at the things we are seeing on screen. While we will all be offended, we will also all find ourselves laughing.

I could go into a great deal of detail about the characters and storyline here, but those are things that are predictable and are concepts we have seen in movies before. The journey to get there, though, is actually far more enjoyable than I would have ever anticipated. There is the love affair between competing members of the two teams, the relationship that develops between the players of Average Joes and the former 7-time all-star coach Patches O’Houlihan -- played by great character actor Rip Torn -- who is now retired and confined to a wheelchair. We also see each character at Average Joes begin to develop self-confidence and self-worth during this wonderful and funny journey. There are subtle innuendoes that I found surprised even me, especially so since I drew many comparisons with the book of James in the New Testament.

The book of James is a book that even Martin Luther called an “Epistle of Straw,” and if it had been up to him, it would have never been included in the Bible. It is a book that is hard-hitting and challenging for many Christians. It is a book that essentially challenges Christians to start doing exactly what they have been taught. But the lessons in the book are somewhat revealing. They are lessons that -- if we diligently applied them -- we Christians would receive far more respect not only from our secular world but also from those who follow other religions or beliefs.

In Dodgeball we see the primary character of Ben Stiller as an individual caught up in himself. In many ways we despise him, but he is a character that -- if we're not careful -- we could all become. He himself was an individual who was a misfit but worked hard to overcome a serious weight problem. Now he is so obsessed with himself that he refuses to see anything good in anyone else around him. It is a rather sad state, especially since we, the viewers, glimpse his perversions, difficulties and struggles. White gets so caught up in himself that he forgets what it is that got him where he has now arrived. Instead of recognizing the people and things that helped him get there, he seems to focus on himself all too much, oftentimes staring into a mirror, marveling at his wonderful self and becoming angry when anyone, especially the Average Joes, attempts to take him out of his own misguided self-realization.

My dear friends, you should be quick to listen and slow to speak or get angry. If you are angry, you cannot do any of the good things that God wants done. You must stop doing anything immoral or evil. Instead, be humble and accept the message that is planted in you to save you.

Obey God’s message! Don’t fool yourself just by listening to it. If you hear the message and don’t obey it, you are like people who stare at themselves in a mirror and forget what they look like as soon as they leave. But you must never stop looking at the perfect law that sets you free. God will bless you in everything you do, if you listen and obey, and don’t just hear and forget.
- James 1: 19-27 (Contemporary English Version)

On the surface, one could think that I may have misapplied the spiritual parallels. But there is a wonderful transaction scene in the movie, which has White's office as its center. In his office sits a replica of the famous statue from the foyer of the Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma at Oklahoma State University. This statue shows Jacob wrestling with the Angel of God, and it represents the struggles the characters undergo in the storyline of this movie, struggles that this statue and the story of Jacob appropriately represent.

(To see my presentation of Wrestling with God presented at two USA Folkstyle Kids National Championships and 2 Kansas State Wrestling Kids Championships visit the link at my website, that link also includes a photo of the statue used in the movie.)

In many ways the White Character represents all of us: he is an individual who has made tremendous progress on his own, but unfortunately has forgotten about all the work and people along the way that helped get him there. If he had actually learned the lessons that the statue in his office represents, things would have been so much better for him, and he would have been much more fulfilled in his life. Those lessons and struggles are not just physical, as represented by the great sport of wrestling itself, but they are also spiritual, as represented by the statue. There is even a line toward the conclusion of the movie, as the great match is getting ready to get underway, when one of the announcers states that the match and struggles are even “truer than the Bible itself.” In many ways, those struggles and challenges are the very things that the Bible addresses: how to find inner peace, satisfaction, and ultimate joy and salvation.

We see examples of sacrifice, where one player willingly gives himself up for the team; we see an example of players calling on inner strength to do things that at one time seemed unimaginable. There is an example of needing righteous anger to overcome foes, and another of an Average Joe developing the self-confidence he needs simply to believe in himself. There is much that suggests learning to love your neighbor as yourself. We see one character find love for the first time when he gives himself up for the team and realizes that he is willing to see something beautiful when others don’t see beauty in themselves. We even see the Peter La Fleur character step out in faith, not just from the perspective of a game situation, but from the perspective of putting everything of value to him on the line.

Ultimately, the valuable lessons in this story will not be enjoyable for the overly religious crowd. This movie has enough adult sick humor in it that it could easily have been rated R; however, the journey along the way for those that can deal with it, is well worthwhile.

For all practical purposes, the storyline could have used as a storyboard the theme of James Chapter 2:

My friends, if you have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, you won’t treat some people better than others. Suppose a rich person wearing fancy clothes and a gold ring comes to one of your meetings. And suppose a poor person dressed in worn-out clothes also comes. You must not give the best seat to the one in fancy clothes and tell the one who is poor to stand at the side or sit on the floor. That is the same as saying that some people are better than others, and you would be acting like a crooked judge.

My dear friends, pay attention. God has given a lot of faith to the poor people in this world. He has also promised them a share in his kingdom that he will give to everyone who loves him. You mistreat the poor. But isn’t it the rich who boss you around and drag you off to court? Aren’t they the ones who make fun of your Lord?

You will do all right, if you obey the most important law in the Scriptures. It is the law that commands us to love others as much as we love ourselves. But if you treat some people better than others, you have done wrong, and the Scriptures teach that you have sinned.

If you obey every law except one, you are still guilty of breaking them all. The same God who told us to be faithful in marriage also told us not to murder. So even if you are faithful in marriage, but murder someone, you still have broken God’s Law.

Speak and act like people who will be judged by the law that sets us free. Do this, because on the day of judgment there will be no pity for those who have not had pity on others. But even in judgment, God is merciful.
- James 2 1-13 (Contemporary English Version)

Dodgeball has quite possibly the funniest end credit clips ever seen at the conclusion of a movie. [Now parents, let me make something clear: don’t take small children to see this movie. I don’t care that it is only rated PG-13; as I mentioned above, it should have been rated R.] The closing sequence -- missed by over 95% of the audience, who left as soon as the credits started -- was absolutely hilarious. Always stay until the very end of a movie. I may be embarrassed to say so, but I don’t remember when I have laughed so hard. Nor can I remember when I've heard a remaining audience in a movie laugh so hard. By the way, if you decide to take up the sport of Dodgeball, don’t forget the 5 D’s of Dodgeball: Dodge, Duck, Dip, Dive and . . . oh yeah, Dodge again.

The theme of self-discovery and the lessons portrayed, with the potential for applying spiritual themes to those lessons, are the value of this movie. Those "lessons" are done in a fun, yet, clear way. It is for that reason that on a scale of 1-10, for the members on the team of Average Joes, their manager, plus their coach, I am giving a very enjoyable and heartfelt 8.

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