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Movie Review: Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story

This isn’t the dumbest mockumentary ever made, though at times, Blackballed was so dumb it almost seemed to be mocking mockumentaries. I mean, paintball is its own parody. Starring Rob Corddry of the The Daily Show, this 2004 low-budget film is currently enjoying a very limited theatre run – I saw it at the Brattle, which I’ve vowed to support through their cash-flow crisis even though I’m missing better-reviewed current releases at other theaters. Whatever. Blackballed has got “cult classic” painted all over it.

Bobby Dukes is a former paintball champion, banned for ten years from the (ahem) sport after he was caught “wiping” during a game. Older and balder, he returns from his exile to compete in a paintball tournament. After trying in vain to reconnect with his old team mates, he recruits a new team consisting of every known paintball player stereotype: The earnest nerd, the crackpot ex-Marine, the lazy stoner, the aging hippie, and the dorky kid sister who is always around when a substitute is needed. As predictably-motley as the ensemble and the plot are, the improvisation is so excellent that the humor is never quite quirky on purpose.

The camera work veered into Blair Witch jerkiness, and director Brant Sersen is obviously taking his cues from Christopher Guest, but I was rolling with laughter at least once a minute. “Kick their ass so hard that their ass goes up their own ass!” I can’t begrudge it for being dumb when I’m laughing.

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