OxfordPress.com

Grade: B+

Verdict: A blissfully uncouth comedy that shines like a red rubber ball.

By BOB TOWNSEND
Cox News Service

In "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story," first-time feature writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber heeds the counsel of his film's twisted creation, dodgeball legend Patches O'Houlihan: "Aim low."

That sneaky advice turns out to be perfect for making a comedy so brainless it's actually kind of brilliant.

Thurber (the guy behind the "Terry Tate: Office Linebacker" Reebok commercials) and producer Ben Stiller stoop to conquer by gleefully recycling just about every '70s and '80s Hollywood underdog and sports movie they could remember -- think "Revenge of the Nerds" meets "Major League" with some "Meatballs" thrown on top.

But because they obviously had so much fun doing it, summer audiences will have a blast laughing along with all the delightfully stupid, rude and crude stuff they let fly in this 90-minute spit take of a movie.

The set-up goes like this: Stiller, looking oh so freaky with a feathered mullet, a Tom Selleck mustache and a pneumatic codpiece, plays White Goodman, the pumped-up, self-absorbed owner of the uber-fancy fitness franchise Globo Gym. "We're better than you and we know it," Goodman announces in his Globo TV ads.

Across the street, underachieving, beer-swilling schlub Peter Le Fleur -- played by nodding and winking Vince Vaughn -- operates the rival, run-down and soon-to-be-foreclosed Average Joe's Gym. Joe's is home to an abnormal assortment of losers who hide out more than they work out -- including delusional, dagger-wielding Steve the Pirate (Alan Tudyk), high school cheerleader wannabe Justin (Justin Long) and cheerfully hapless but possibly psycho Gordon (Stephen Root).

Gordon reads Obscure Sports Quarterly and gets the big idea that the nerds should band together on a dodgeball team. Why? Because Goodman has hatched a plot to turn Joe's into a parking garage, and winning $50,000 in a Las Vegas dodgeball tournament may be the only way to foil his evil plan. But then, of course, Goodman puts together his own muscle-bound Globo team, and the battle royale is broadcast live on ESPN 8 -- "The Ocho," where "If it's almost a sport, we've got it here!"

Silly enough for ya? Well, it gets sillier.

Rip Torn turns up as loony dirty old man O'Houlihan, coaching Average Joe's on the five d's, of dodgeball -- "dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge" -- while tossing box wrenches at their heads, and mugging one-liners like, "You're about as useful as a poopy-flavored lollypop" toward the camera. Christine Taylor (Stiller's wife) comes on kindly but tough as unicorn-loving lawyer Kate Veatch, who stops working with Goodman after one too many greasy passes and gets her revenge as star of the Joe's team.

You can fill in the blanks and figure out where the story goes from here. Much like the comedies it emulates, it inevitably bogs down in the third act. And can you say Scooby-Doo ending? But what redeems "Dodgeball" is its satirical script, kaleidoscope of pop-culture references and whip-smart cast.