From today's Oregonian....
Like "Dodgeball" and "Wet Hot American Summer," "Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story" feels like it was made by thirtysomethings who want to put some ironic distance between themselves and the movies they loved in junior high.
It's a fake documentary, shot on video, following disgraced paintball legend Bobby Dukes ("The Daily Show"'s Rob Corddry) as he attempts a comeback -- 10 years and several hair follicles past his prime.
He builds a patented Ragtag Team of Misfits? that includes his adorably mousy sister (Dannah Feinglass), the referee who ended his career (Paul Scheer), a dithering coward (Curtis Gwinn), a Canadian New Ager (Seth Morris) and a bloodlusty rageaholic (Rob Riggle).
As this pack of idiots heads to the Hudson Valley Paintball Classic -- and an inevitable showdown with the sport's reigning egomaniac (Rob Huebel) -- "Blackballed" tone-checks everything from Ramis to Guest to "This is Spinal Tap" to the very cheesiest inspirational sports movies (with just a dash of "Saving Private Ryan" during the paintball combat).
Which is fine. Except that, in execution, "Blackballed" is more amusing than funny.
The cast is packed with Upright Citizens Brigade refugees, all of whom apparently improvised their dialogue within a story by director Brant Sersen and co-writer Brian Steinberg. This can be laugh-out-loud funny when Feinglass goes all squeaky, or when Riggle's yelling "Second place is first place for losers!" while going off on one of his roughly eight billion rants about wanting to drink the blood of his enemies. (Be sure to watch how Corddry can't keep a straight face whenever Riggle's onscreen.) And D.J. Hazard, playing the drill-sergeant head of the Classic, has a scary knack for coming up with metaphors like "The world was thirsty for a miracle, and you were the bartenders of whup-ass!"
But too many other characters fail to spark, including Corddry, who couldn't seem any less like a man trying to shrug off a decade of public shame. But even that could be forgiven if the story didn't drag a bit, but it does -- especially during a protracted training montage and during the deeply uninteresting paintball fights.
"Blackballed" is
never actively unfunny. The cast is far too smart for that. But it never quite
pops like it would if it were whittled down to something just a little longer
than an SNL Digital Short.
Caution: wet paint
(The Oregonian, June 9,
2006)
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