Dodgeball is the latest entrant in the seemingly never ending cycle of Hollywood comedies, starring a permutation of the same actors, and also one of the worst. Comparing unfavorably to the similar, but far superior Anchorman, it is a beginning-to-end collection of gags, most of which fail completely.

Highlighting Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller, the film is based upon the faulty notion that non stop jokes about "balls," as well as non stop ball-to-crotch shots, are inherently humorous. While there are laughs scattered intermittently, Dodgeball is full of funny actors not being funny.

Vaughn, who gave one of the great comedic performances of recent years in 1996's Swingers, is wasted as the owner of a gym that faces foreclosure if it can't raise $50,000 - you'd think a gym this size, that hasn't collected dues in months, would owe more than that, but never mind.

Vaughn and his proverbial "ragtag band of misfits," none of whom are ever funny, decide to enter a Las Vegas dodgeball tournament, with a prize of that same $50,000. But they are opposed in this endeavor by White Goodman (Stiller), owner of nearby fitness emporium Globo Gym, who enters the tournament with a team of his own.

Stiller, who seems to have appeared in every Hollywood comedy of the past six months, is especially grating. His character gets less funny the further he goes over the top and, besides, he played practically the same role in the early Nineties kids comedy Heavyweights. Even worse, since Stiller is the producer, he brought along his talentless wife Christine Taylor to play the female lead.

There are, however, a few jokes that work, most notably a sequence in which Rip Torn, as an eightysomething dodgeball "legend," teaches the team the game by throwing wrenches. But the half decent stuff is outweighed by gross out, laugh-free, off colour humour, such as a preponderance of misogynistic and fat jokes. As I said about Stiller's "Zoolander" three years ago, it's never a good sign when the best thing about a movie is its cameos.

What's sad is that just about everyone in Dodgeball has been funny at some point -Vaughn in Swingers, Stiller in There's Something About Mary and Meet the Parents, Torn on Larry Sanders. But here, they're given so little to work with that it's hard to laugh at any of it.

First time writer/director Rawson Marshall Thurber isn't able to combine the acting talent with the Eighties homage stuff and sports culture parodies. Considering how much money the film has made in North America, he'll likely get another chance.