Ok, I figured I'd just get that out of the way, right off the bat. If you haven't seen Dodgeball and are interested in watching it and, perhaps more importantly, enjoying the end of it… don't read any more.
Can't say I didn't warn you.
I'm a sucker for the extras on DVDs… blooper reels, deleted scenes, alternate endings… I love to see what "might have been". So getting all three on the Dodgeball DVD was like hitting paydirt. (You'll also want to check out the featurettes for some great slapstick as well.)
But the "alternate ending" option on this one was a little different than most. The director's commentary explains that this is the original ending that they'd shot, that he, Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn thought it was the perfect ending and it was only after test audiences balked at it and the studio demanded changes that they went back and reshot the ending.
Usually I side with the director/actor side of things on the whole idea of "audience testing". Let's face it, polling the audience to see what they think is the express route to the lowest common denominator. But this time, much as it pains me to say it… I think the audience got it right.
The ending in the theatrical release has, of course, the big showdown between Ben Stiller's team of fitness Nazis and Vince Vaughn's "Average Joe's Gym" team of lovable losers. At the last instant, just as you think the Average Joe's team has won, Stiller gets in a final shot to take out Vaughn and win the match. Surprise, shock & horror… the bad guys win!
Or course, it's not that simple. Before Stiller can even enjoy his gloat, Vaughn reveals that he took the money that Stiller paid him off with the night before and laid down a bet on the game at 50-1 odds. Suddenly, he's got 5 million dollars to spend, and he uses it to buy a controlling interest in Stiller's gym. Now he's the boss and Stiller ends up on a food binge and balloons back up to his old "can't fit out the doorway" weight. All is well, the good guys win and the bad guy gets his just desserts (pun intended).
Fast forward to the "alternate/original ending" and it starts out pretty much the same. Fitness Nazis vs. Average Joes, down to the last shot, Stiller's character beans Vaughn's character, winning the match… and the credits roll. Surprise, shock & horror… the bad guys win! And this time, according to the director and his two leads, this is the right ending, the only honest ending, because in real life, sometimes the bad guy really does win.
Which, if this was a more serious-toned film, I might actually be able to buy. But what they've done is given the audience 90 minutes of absurd, slapstick humor and here, in the last moments of the movie, they're going to slap them upside the head with a nasty dose of reality? Did they forget what kind of movie they were making? Did they think they were doing art-house here?
Whatever answer you choose, sadly, I have to agree that this is a horrible ending for this film. At the VERY least, if you're going to inflict this kind of downer ending on us, we need some kind of resolution for the characters we've come to identify with and relate to. But no, not even that. Bang, bad guy wins, roll the credits. A harsh ending, as well as an unsympathetic one.
What's even more annoying is that, now that I've seen this ending and know that it's the director's choice for the real ending, all the humor in the theatrical ending—the ending the studio insisted on—is "tainted" by this knowledge. Suddenly, the fact that the chest of gold they roll out onto the court is called "deus ex machina" is no longer amusing, it's snide. And Ben Stiller's riff in a fat suit as the credits roll is no longer the funniest moment in the film… now he's attacking all those idiot audience members that didn't get the purity of vision their original ending had.
It's sad, really. 'Cause I enjoyed the movie the first time around. Next time I watch it, I'll probably be jaded and cynical.
Can't say I didn't warn you.
I'm a sucker for the extras on DVDs… blooper reels, deleted scenes, alternate endings… I love to see what "might have been". So getting all three on the Dodgeball DVD was like hitting paydirt. (You'll also want to check out the featurettes for some great slapstick as well.)
But the "alternate ending" option on this one was a little different than most. The director's commentary explains that this is the original ending that they'd shot, that he, Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn thought it was the perfect ending and it was only after test audiences balked at it and the studio demanded changes that they went back and reshot the ending.
Usually I side with the director/actor side of things on the whole idea of "audience testing". Let's face it, polling the audience to see what they think is the express route to the lowest common denominator. But this time, much as it pains me to say it… I think the audience got it right.
The ending in the theatrical release has, of course, the big showdown between Ben Stiller's team of fitness Nazis and Vince Vaughn's "Average Joe's Gym" team of lovable losers. At the last instant, just as you think the Average Joe's team has won, Stiller gets in a final shot to take out Vaughn and win the match. Surprise, shock & horror… the bad guys win!
Or course, it's not that simple. Before Stiller can even enjoy his gloat, Vaughn reveals that he took the money that Stiller paid him off with the night before and laid down a bet on the game at 50-1 odds. Suddenly, he's got 5 million dollars to spend, and he uses it to buy a controlling interest in Stiller's gym. Now he's the boss and Stiller ends up on a food binge and balloons back up to his old "can't fit out the doorway" weight. All is well, the good guys win and the bad guy gets his just desserts (pun intended).
Fast forward to the "alternate/original ending" and it starts out pretty much the same. Fitness Nazis vs. Average Joes, down to the last shot, Stiller's character beans Vaughn's character, winning the match… and the credits roll. Surprise, shock & horror… the bad guys win! And this time, according to the director and his two leads, this is the right ending, the only honest ending, because in real life, sometimes the bad guy really does win.
Which, if this was a more serious-toned film, I might actually be able to buy. But what they've done is given the audience 90 minutes of absurd, slapstick humor and here, in the last moments of the movie, they're going to slap them upside the head with a nasty dose of reality? Did they forget what kind of movie they were making? Did they think they were doing art-house here?
Whatever answer you choose, sadly, I have to agree that this is a horrible ending for this film. At the VERY least, if you're going to inflict this kind of downer ending on us, we need some kind of resolution for the characters we've come to identify with and relate to. But no, not even that. Bang, bad guy wins, roll the credits. A harsh ending, as well as an unsympathetic one.
What's even more annoying is that, now that I've seen this ending and know that it's the director's choice for the real ending, all the humor in the theatrical ending—the ending the studio insisted on—is "tainted" by this knowledge. Suddenly, the fact that the chest of gold they roll out onto the court is called "deus ex machina" is no longer amusing, it's snide. And Ben Stiller's riff in a fat suit as the credits roll is no longer the funniest moment in the film… now he's attacking all those idiot audience members that didn't get the purity of vision their original ending had.
It's sad, really. 'Cause I enjoyed the movie the first time around. Next time I watch it, I'll probably be jaded and cynical.
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