Cameos, one-liners make this ball a riot

Lately it seems hardly a weekend goes by when Ben Stiller is not starring in a new movie. While he's had hits in the past (i.e. "There's Something about Mary," "Meet the Parents"), his recent flicks have been rather disappointing ("Envy," "Along Came Polly"). But this is not the case with "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story." What the film lacks in plot, it more than compensates for with laughs. \n"Dodgeball" stars Vince Vaughn as Peter La Fleur, the friendly but disorganized owner of Average Joe's, who is on the brink of losing his gym if he cannot come up with $50,000 in one month. \nWhite Goodman (Stiller, doing a much more over the top version of his weight conscious camp counselor character from "Heavyweights") is the complete opposite. He is an arrogant and shrewd businessman, not to mention he owns Globo Gym, a successful fitness center of the future, and he wants nothing more than to buy out La Fleur's hole in the wall gym. \nAlong with his crew of weakly nerds and a pirate wannabe, La Fleur decides to enter a national dodgeball competition to win the 50K prize. If you were a fan of playing dodgeball in junior high gym class, you will certainly appreciate the color-commentated matches, shown as if they were being televised on ESPN 8, "the Ocho." And as they say on the Ocho, dodgeball competition is "the World Series meets World War II." \nThe men know absolutely nothing about the sport of dodgeball, so they are coached by former champ Patches O'Houlihan (Rip Torn), who is presently a crackpot geezer bound to a wheelchair. Also helping out along the way is Kate Veatch (Christine Taylor), a lawyer negotiating Goodman's takeover of Average Joe's, who soon joins La Fleur's team. \nFor a comedy, this movie serves its purpose quite well. Some of its humor is reminiscent of "The Simpsons," in that there is an amusing flashback to an overweight cheerleader segment and the team watches a ridiculous black and white filmstrip of "Little Timmy" learning the strategy behind the game of dodgeball. \nWhile the laughs are plentiful throughout, the comic jackpot comes from strategically placed cameos by William Shatner, Lance Armstrong, who has the funniest speech in the movie, and a few others that will remain nameless. The television commercials definitely do this film little justice. \nThe best part about "Dodgeball" is that it uses many different comic styles rather than simply relying on too much slapstick. There are great one-liners, it is over-the-top at times, and overall, it's a film about the best game to ever be played in gym class.