If You Can Dodge A Wrench

Thursday last week I was filling in the afternoon before I could drive off into the horizon. As is my want, a film is my preferred choice of time wasting. Dodgeball it was.

It has been toted to be funnier than Zoolander. I loved Zoolander, and hoped to enjoy Dodgeball equally. In fact, it was funnier by far. I knew I was in for a couple of hours of laughing at people in pain and so my conscience should have been saying 'this is bad and you shouldn't be laughing', but it was gutbustingly funny.

Ben Stiller looked like he was in a slump of late (to me anyhow). Starsky and Hutch was neither here nor there, Along Came Polly didn't make me want to see it, therefore I didn't. Vince Vaughn wasn't a drawcard for me, I wasn't overly impressed with him in Starsky and Hutch nor Old School. The rest of the ensemble were the drawcards for me, Justin Long (Ed), Rip Torn (MIB), Stephen Root (The Ladykillers), and, of course, Alan Tudyk (Firefly, A Knight's Tale, I, Robot).

If you're not a fan of slapstick or, obvious but a bit gross comedy then you may not like Dodgeball, but I think it's the underdog string that pulls you into this film. Rip Torn's delivery of horrible lines about drinking urine cause it tastes good are perfect and his ultimate demise is hilarious. Justin Long doesn't have to try in the parts he plays, he's naturally funny and goofy. Stephen Root's subscription to 'Obscure Sport Digest' is what starts this whole ball rolling. Vince Vaughn is charmingly funny in this role, and not once was I put off by his typical sleazy. Ben Still wearing a bad wig and truly gross handlebar-moustache managed to raise the bar on his other films. The sexual ambiguity of Christine Taylor's character was a lot of fun, and never delved into total offensiveness.

Alan Tudyk steals the focus of every shot he's in. Constantly finding some way to draw the attention to him, not by overactive, but in keeping in total character even if he's out of focus in the background. I watched A Knight's Tale again today, and he's the same in that. Constantly totally in character.

I've not said much about the story. It's not too complex, so needs no analysis.

It's fun and funny and I say to see it to take your woes away for a while.