Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story

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Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
Directed byRawson Marshall Thurber
Written byRawson Marshall Thurber
Produced byStuart Cornfeld
Ben Stiller
StarringVince Vaughn
Christine Taylor
Ben Stiller
Rip Torn
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release dates
June 18, 2004 U.S. release
Running time
92 min
LanguageEnglish
Budget$20,000,000 (estimated)

Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story is a 2004 comedy from 20th Century Fox, written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber.

Taglines:

  • A true underdog story.
  • Grab life by the ball.
  • Grab Life by the Balls. (Australia and Europe)
  • Go balls deep.

Plot

Template:Spoilers

File:DodgeballBenStiller.jpg
Fran, White, and Me'Shell preparing to decimate another team

The plot involves the underdog gym Average Joe's, which tries to keep itself afloat by playing an important game of dodgeball against a glitzy, expensive gym called Globo Gym. Vaughn's character leads the Average Joe's team to a classic underdog win at the last moment in a sudden death playoff, utilizing the "5 D's of Dodgeball": Dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge. The film features cameos by celebrities such as Lance Armstrong, Chuck Norris, Hank Azaria, David Hasselhoff and William Shatner.

The DVD features an alternate ending in which the Average Joe's team loses and the movie ends thereafter. The audio commentary by director Rawson Marshall Thurber indicates that this was the original ending to the film, something many critics and Internet reviewers picked up and reported as fact. This is fact, because although the film commentary is a tongue-in-cheek spat between the director and actors, on the British DVD, the director's commentary for this alternate ending is in a separate section to the commentary for the rest of the film, and this one is only commented on by the director. In this the director reveals that he actually left the film for a time in protest at the ending being changed to Joe's team winning.

Despite relying largely on goofy comedy, the movie was relatively well-received by viewers and critics. Some even viewed the movie as a parody of sports tales as well as society's less-than-obscure social classes. The dialog contains quite a few obscure jokes that only viewers with a fair amount of background in history, literature, and pop culture will understand. There are also several moments of almost meta-referential humor, such as the "Deus ex machina" plaque on the treasure chest which suddenly appears near the end.

Institutions in the movie

  • ESPN 8 ("The Ocho"): "If it's almost a sport, we've got it here!" This network is a riff on ESPN's growing empire of sports TV networks, which in 2004 numbered 5, not counting secondary services such as the Spanish-language "ESPN Deportes". In addition, the title is a reference to the nickname of "The Deuce" for ESPN-2 when it first appeared.
  • The American Dodgeball Association of America: The sanctioning body for the sport who has laid down the rules as follows:
    • 6 players with one ball each; no gender specifications
    • Catching of the ball counts as a reversal (that is, the throwing player is out and another player on the catching team is allowed to come back on the field)
    • No stepping beyond the red line which cuts the field horizontally in half
    • Only ADAA balls can be used; personal balls are prohibited
    • Sudden death: If all players but one from each team are eliminated, and one commits a double fault, one player from both teams will participate in this overtime from two triangles facing each other. The first player to hit his opponent wins; catching is irrelevant. If a player were to step out of the triangle, that player would be disqualified.
    • All players on a team must wear matching uniforms.
    • Dyslexic players are not allowed on court.
  • Obscure Sports Quarterly: A quarterly magazine which reports on obscure sports, such as Midget Tossing.
  • Las Vegas University Learning Annex: The host of the Las Vegas International Dodgeball Open
  • Über American Films: The Film institute that produced and distributed the Dogdeball documentary from 1938. A possible reference to Germans or Nazis, although the term Über has a very positive connotation in modern times.

Teams shown playing at the Las Vegas International Dodgeball Open

Teams Mentioned but Not Shown

Trivia

  • The rivalry between The Average Joes and the Purple Cobras is a reference to that between the Joes and Cobras from G.I. Joe. "Purple cobra" is also slang for penis.
  • In a DVD extra, director Rawson Marshall Thurber shows a joke "director's cut" with the movie ending in Average Joe's defeat. In that version the line "They came here for absolutely nothing" ended the movie, and the credits rolled. Thurber states on the commentary that due to poor screen testing, the studio forced him to replace that ending with their own up-beat one, the one seen in theaters. Thurber further states on this commentary that he was so incensed by the studio's actions that he "left the film for a week," and that he still believes the defeat of Average Joe's "was the right way to end the movie." He has also said that in the early drafts of the script, Average Joe's did lose, but Steve the Pirate was going to come back with a large amount of money he had won at Treasure Island after a pedestrian on The Strip (played by Thurber) told him to go back there. [citation needed]
  • If you pay heavy attention to the beginning of the movie, White Goodman states "Six years ago" on the Globo Gym commercial and in subtitles it reads, "White Goodman 1987." This implies the year is 1993, but this is clearly false, as evidence later in the film suggests. Lance Armstrong refers to his "5 Tour De France victories", which clearly dates the film to 2004. Also, it is mentioned that ESPN8 presented obscure sports since 1999. It is also possible that the Globo Gym "commercial" has been in constant re-runs, which could also add to the discrepancy.
  • The treasure chest containing the winnings that save the day bears a plaque that reads Deus Ex Machina.
  • The numerical amount on the winning check is 150,000 but it is written "fifty-thousand and 00/100."
  • In the unrated edition, Peter La Fleur, Kate Veatch and her bi-sexual friend Joyce engage in group kissing after Average Joe's victory.
  • When watching the Joe's commercial at the end of the film, as they are walking up to the camera, one can see Justin place his hand on Amber's very pregnant belly.
  • When White is knocked to the floor in the final match, Cotton McKnight's call of "Down goes Goodman, Down goes Goodman!" is a reference to Howard Cosell's famous call of "Down goes Frazier, Down Goes Frazier!" in the 1973 heavyweight boxing title fight between Joe Frazier and George Foreman. He also says "Do you believe in unlikelyhoods?" which is a reference to the famous call of the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" where Al Michaels screams "Do you believe in Miracles?"
  • Thurber states that he based the red and yellow colors of the Average Joes' uniforms on those worn by Hickory High School in the film Hoosiers.
  • Puppet legend Flat Eric was originally due to appear in a cameo role, but was forced to pull out due to scheduling conflicts.
  • In the restaurant, when White Goodman says "Ball me!" meaning "Pass me a ball", the line may have been inspired by the way J.J Hunsucker would say "Match me!" to ask for a light in The Sweet Smell Of Success. Or, perhaps a reference to the popular phrase "Beer Me."
  • After his appearance in the film, Rip Torn became league commissioner on the third season of the TV series Extreme Dodgeball.
  • On movie posters the phrase is "Grab Life By The Ball" while on the DVD cover it says "Grab Life By The Balls." Both variations of the tagline is a parody of the Dodge Motors slogan "Grab life by the horns."
  • Candice Michelle's role as a Dodgeball dancer for the movie was one of the ways that Candice qualified for a WWE Diva Search, which later became a diva for the World Wrestling Entertainment.
  • After introducing "Blade," a member of his team who bears a striking resemblance to Val Kilmer, Blade clicks his teeth together in the manner of Iceman in Top Gun.
  • This is the second film Ben Stiller has been in where his character is a crazed fitness/nutrition guru. The first film where he had a role similar to his role in Dodgeball was the film Heavyweights.
  • An announcer at the tournament, Pepper Brooks (played by Jason Bateman), has hair done up to resemble Robert Smith's, core member of the band The Cure.
  • Future 2006 WWE Diva Search finalist Jen England appears as a dodgeball dancer.
  • The scene where White appears on a large TV monitor and looks like he can see everything going on is a reference to Nineteen Eighty-Four's Big Brother.
  • Peter La Fleur is a homage to hockeys legend Guy Lafleur.
  • If you look closely when Kate was coming in Globo Gym to talk to White, you'll notice then he was using a penis enlarger, similar to the one DX bought for Vince McMahon.

Cast and roles include

External links

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