Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story (2004)

Hey, Rob Corddry starred in a movie! Let's watch it! In the tradition of Dodgeball and The Mighty Ducks, Blackballed tells the story of an underdog team fighting against all odds to rise to the top. But this time it's a mockumentary and involves shooting people, yay! A film crew follows around Bobby Dukes (Corddry), paintball's first superstar, who's been out of the game for a decade after being caught cheating. He's back and ready to play in the championships but first he needs to put a team together, which proves difficult given his nefarious past and out-of-date connections to the game.

He manages to wrangle his adorable and steadfast (but totally unskilled) sister Erika (Dannah Feinglass), geeky paintball referee Lenny Pear (Paul Scheer), aggressive Eddie (Rob Riggle), inexperienced but deft-at-videogames Showtime (Curt Gwinn), and eventually the talented and laid back Crosby Peters (Seth Morris), who originally played on an opposing team comprised of Canadian white rappers, if I remember correctly. Team assembled, now the training begins. Each member contributes his own workouts and techniques to help get everyone ready for the tournament. The main event will pit Bobby against his former teammate/sidekick Sam Brown (Rob Huebel), who is now married to Bobby's old girlfriend Jill (Jamie Denbo) and has developed a bit of a superiority complex. I guess it will be intense.

This movie is rather silly, as its premise suggests. The cast is pretty great, with excellent but too-brief appearances from Ed Helms and Jack McBrayer. Rob Huebel is fantastic and over the top and just really ridiculous. I really liked Rob Riggle as well, whom I had only seen in smaller roles. The more I watched him the more I came to realize he is quite possibly related to Patrick Warburton (who I kind of think is the best despite his oft-crappy choice of roles). He just dominates every scene he is in, but in good way. And Dannah Feinglass is super cute! I wish she was in it more! Rob Corddry is always likable, though here he is fairly understated and not especially interesting- playing more of a straight man to his crazy surrounding cast.

I love the fake documentary style in general, and it was used pretty well here, though some of the mini-interviews were pointless. I feel like the script could have pushed things a bit further, been a bit more ludicrous in its action or dialogue, and then it could have been really great. As it stands it's funny at parts, but not as a whole. It's still a good movie, and worth it for any fan of the cast or sports comedies, but it was frustrating to sense how much better it could have been. Kudos to not having a completely cliche ending, though! Also thanks for teaching me more about paintball! (I haven't played it before.)

3.5/5