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Tuesday, June 29, 2004
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THE BATTA
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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 ■ ■ ■
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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
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blends Islamic beliefs with Christian ones. Here, she said,
learned how to connect with God on a different level.
“The healings help a person go into their heart and see place
their heart that need love from God,” Sikes said. “One of thelk
that attracted me to Sufis was that the (Sufi) teachers were soda
and l felt that they could take me further than Christianity. 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. Hisstutk
often wait around outside his office, hoping their professor can
some religious guidance.
“Sometimes it’s very difficult to keep my own beliefs out of!
advice, but I try to stay professional,” he said. “I’m convinced!
religion is a very important part of life.”
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