L. KENT WOLGAMOTT / GZO | Posted: Thursday, July 6, 2006 7:00 pm
“Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story” is yet another mockumentary in the style of “This Is Spinal Tap,” “Waiting for Guffman” and “Best in Show.”
This time, it’s sports that are getting sent up. That starts with the “sport” that’s at the center of the picture — paintball, the goofy game in which combatants shoot little paintballs at each other while running around a course covered with “bunkers.” The team that manages to keep one of its members from getting plunked and comes back with a flag is the winner.
Bobby Dukes, well-played by Rob Corddry of “The Daily Show,” is a disgraced former paintball wizard. During a championship match, he “wiped,” taking paint off his pants to stay in the game. He’s disqualified and banned from the sport for a decade.
Returning to the game after wandering the world, Bobby is rebuffed by his old teammates and finds his former girlfriend married to his old partner. But a militaristic promoter encourages him to put together a team and retake the championship.
So Bobby does just that, recruiting a paintball-loving geek (Paul Scheer), a psycho wannabe killer (Rob Riggle), a gamer scared of the paintballs (Curtis Gwinn) and a stolen Canadian team member, the son of a hippie mom (Seth Morris) who is breaking away from his upbringing by playing a violent sport.
The final member of the team, sort of, is Bobby’s geeky, but highly supportive sister, Erika (Dannah Feinglass).
That setup allows director/co-writer Brant Sersen to take aim at every sports film cliche, whether it is a documentary or and inspirational based-on-a-true-story picture, such as “Glory Road” or “Remember the Titans.”
There’s the conversion of Bobby from self-centered rule-bender to inspirational leader, the molding of a misfit bunch into a team, the physical training sequences, etc.
If you’ve ever seen a sports movie, you know instinctively what is coming next in “Blackballed” and yet it remains funny throughout. That’s because, like the best mockumentaries, Sersen’s film simultaneously takes itself seriously and isn’t at all serious.
So the ridiculousness of all of the situations, relationships and characters is emphasized from start to finish. That takes some deft comic timing, and Corddry has it as does the rest of the cast, who are members of the Upright Citizens Brigade, a New York improv comedy troupe that has a Comedy Central show.
They’re clearly having fun mocking the obsessive paintball subculture and, by extension, sports cultures in general.
But they’ve made a movie that might just fake out some paintball fans — a true measure of its quality. That happened when I saw “This Is Spinal Tap” for the first time in an Omaha theater. About a couple of dozen people were there, but just a couple of us were laughing. I’m sure the same thing has occurred with the slyly funny “Blackballed.”
Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or at kwolgamott@journalstar.com.
Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story - 3 stars
Directors: Brant Sersen
Stars: Rob Corddry, Paul Scheer, Dannah Feinglass, Rob Riggle
Rated: Unrated
Running Time: 91 minutes
Now Showing: Ross
The Reel Story: This “mockumentary” is a sendup of the paintball subculture and sports films in general with Comedy Central’s Corddry playing a disgraced champ trying to make a comeback.