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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 29, 2004)
4 AGGII Tuesday, June 29, 2004 JUQL THE BATTA E E R I T I Q U E "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story" Starring Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller, Christine Taylor, Rip Torn Twentieth Century Fox Review by Jay Slovacek Ben Stiller has some making up to do. “Envy,” “Starsky & Hutch,” “Along Came Polly” and “Duplex” have been disasters compared to previous films like “Meet The Parents” and “There’s Something About Mary.” Given the recent failures, “Dodgeball” had every chance of being a dud. Surprisingly, Stiller and Vince Vaughn team up for some good laughs, and the movie keeps interest without focusing too much on Stiller’s overblown ego. Some of the best moments in “Dodgeball” revolve around Stiller’s mindless jock banter and Vaughn’s squint ing confusion. Stiller plays fitness freak White Goodman who runs a gym with the motto “We’re better than you, and we know it.” Sporting a full Fu Manchu mustache and an inflatable crotch, Goodman sees him self as a shrine of manly perfection. Across the street resides the “good guy’s” gym, Average Joe’s Gym, run by Peter La Fleur (Vaughn). La Fleur is Vaughn at his most shabby — he’s so lazy that Average Joe’s hasn’t collected dues in 13 months and now the bank is foreclosing. To add insult to injury, Goodman’s Globo Gym has bought the Average Joe’s mortgage, and Goodman intends to level the eyesore and trans form the space into a parking garage. Average Joe’s regular cus tomers (Stephen Root among them) won’t allow Globo Gym to close their favorite spot. They put their hopes on winning the $50,000 dodgeball championship in Las Vegas to pay the debts. Globo Gym gets wind of this and produces a superior team to thwart Average Joe’s. i “Dodgeball” gets a boost from Patches O’Houlihan (Rip Torn, Aggie Class of ‘52) as the wheelchair-bound dodgeball expert who gives the Average Joe’s team a chance in the tournament. uper ■ ■ ■ ^' ■ ■ ■ ummer IMAGE COURTESY OF TWENTIETH CENTURA White Goodman (Stiller), the egomaniacal owner of Globo Gym, soars for the ball in “Dodgeball: A True Underdogfr O’Houlihan doles out dodgeball wisdom such as. "If youcaiubj wrenches, you can dodge a ball.” The strengths of “Dodgeball” reside in the supporting casij the cameo appearances. The game commentators are witty; V Shatner is amusing as the dodgeball commissioner; Hasselhoff mocks himself as the German team coach and I Armstrong dishes advice. Perhaps the best line of the movie is of profanity directed at Chuck Norris. “Dodgeball” is a winner, but it’s an ugly win. Expects good laughs, some groans and some boredom. Sit through the credits for Stiller’s great out-j take at the end. avings {Bryan student specials?! Golf Course i Welcome Back Student Special Bring 4 students and play for *80 anytime Expires 08-31-04 Present your student I.D. and receive a GREEN FEE and CART for just s 16.75 Offer good after 12:00 p.m. Monday thru Friday $ 15 Thursdays Expires 08-31-04 i t mu i lii I Lti in I Juiiu i Minis i iii I mu il The Bfter tlT Wjitti sn it i'it m.Im /TuTjCxA'w jftrgely Boiced < C Al, lU matinee \ J O I ^ nter Lui| ticket* online \ | ‘ neople I H.I . ill i, in L ill in I i kii| . nl Um hi |lil<, hi Jiuut B Isl ' ,m 1 ■ “I W Beliefs Continued from page 3 not forg I Men place th ■leir ne Item, a I “Bel almight l Minutes from campus/lowest rates " Mast present this ad. ♦ Student rates available on weekends. 823-0126 Call for tee time! caffe* capri the Place for Italian for more info, ask a friend W FREE APPETIZER "1 With meal purchase and this coupon. Not good with any other offer. 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Il’s- a religion that is more focused on your relationship with God): how you practice your beliefs on the outside.” Soon Sikes enrolled in a Sufi healing school in California," 1 she became certified to perform energy healings for otherpeo; GAZA She said her mother and sister, who were both Christians kl ^es stri Sikes introduced them to Sufism, also became Sufis. response Sikes continues to practice her faith by meditating even: et barraj usually waking up in the middle of the night for two hours tod ripped th “Allah,” the Islamic name for God. She said her strict devotk The ai her religion has paid off in the classroom. “Sufism influenced the way 1 study because I leam forthedf. er meaning instead of just learning information,” she said. “Alt: what I’ve learned from Sufism can be incorporated into a psych gy practice.” While Sikes uses her religion to guide her studies, other stud: are using their studies to guide their religion - or lack Christopher Walsh, president of Texas A&M’s Agnostic All Student Group and a senior English major, said his studies haw him to question God’s existence. While the HERI study reports only 8 percent of professors frequently encourage religious dis sions, Walsh said he has found that many of his classes are ope religious debate. Those discussions, he said, have given to stronger agnostic viewpoint on the existence of God. Walsh, who considers himself to be a “weak” atheist, said began soul-searching long before his first religious studies class “I was attending a Catholic high school, and someone asked why I was Catholic. I had no idea,” he said. “I had to ask if what it was that I believed, and I finally decided that there ws enough evidence to say that there was a god.” Walsh said he chose to attend A&M despite its conservative! utation and predominantly Christian student body. “It’s just as difficult to have a different point of view at alii school as it is at a conservative school,” he said. “The topic oft comes up a lot no matter where you are.” And while a divine creator may be the topic of many classic discussions, Walsh doesn’t feel any closer to finding an answer he did several years ago as a Catholic high school student. “If anything, the classes I’ve taken have made me more agnos he said. “I’ve heard as many arguments for God’s existence! have arguments against it, but all of those debates bring you never even considered.” For Stadelmann, religious debates are a way of life. 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