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BY TOM MEEK
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Much like the Farrelly brothers, writer/director, Rawson Marshall Thurber (the man behind the Office Linebacker commercials) blends together dry wit and sophomoric high jinks to create a non-stop gagfest around a subject that has no right to be funny. The set-up is straightforward: Average Joe’s Gym is about to be gobbled up by the ritzy Globo Gym across the street. To save Joe’s, owner Peter La Fleur (Vince Vaughn) and his panoply of merry misfits enter a dodgeball tournament whose purse would enable them to hold onto their beloved establishment. As Globo owner White Goodman, Ben Stiller is a perpetual sight gag with his egomaniacal bulging eyes, poofed-up ’80s coif, and pump-up penis. He almost steals the show until Rip Torn as wheelchair-bound dodgeball legend Patches O’Houlihan descends on the set and starts tossing wrenches and politically incorrect slurs. The origins of the game are attributed to opium-addicted Chinamen tossing severed heads at one another, Las Vegas is emblazoned as a town "built on broken dreams and five-dollar lobster," and Lance Armstrong, William Shatner, and Chuck Norris all pop up in cameos. In short, this underdog nonsense is a real kick. (97 minutes)
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