Church Ball

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Church Ball

PG

2006

1h 31m

Comedy

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

17%

Tomatometer

12 Reviews

39%

Popcornmeter

1,000+ Ratings

Dennis Buckstead (Andrew Wilson), a basketball coach for his church, faces a nearly impossible task: The bishop (Fred Willard) demands that he lead a misfit team to victory in the upcoming championship game. With 20 years of losses behind it, Dennis' team is in danger of being remembered as the worst ever to play the game.

Ted Fry

Seattle Times

... a carefree, underdog sports comedy.

Rated: 2.5/4

Apr 28, 2006

Full Review

Richard Nilsen

Arizona Republic

Jokes fall flat, characterizations are sketchy at best, setups never receive their payoff, unnecessary subplots slow the already glacial pace.

Rated: 1/5

Apr 13, 2006

Full Review

Richard Propes

TheIndependentCritic.com

Hale borrows from nearly every other irreverent sports film ever made.

Rated: 1.5/4.0

Sep 5, 2020

Full Review

Luke Y. Thompson

New Times

Hale's directorial style relies way too much on the kind of cheesy music video montages that have long since been parodied to death, and the religious rock songs used are truly awful.

Apr 29, 2006

Full Review

William Arnold

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Its rowdiness, bathroom humor, cast of familiar but second-rate actors and overall disrespect for organized religion make it seem like any other bad Hollywood farce.

Rated: C-

Apr 28, 2006

Full Review

Phil Villarreal

Arizona Daily Star

Air ball . . . Air ball . . .

Rated: 1/4

Apr 13, 2006

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Audience Member

This comedy from Latter-Day Saint filmmakers can make you laugh if you are familiar with church ball within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. If you are not a member of that church or have no experience with the church's church ball then you might be lost and think "why is this funny?" a lot. This comedic underdog sports story is not ambitious at all and was made clearly for slapstick purposes. The acting is unconvincing and the story is really ridiculous. However, at the heart of the film we can all relate with being an underdog in our own life in some way. Overall I give this film a 3.5/10. I do enjoy this movie because I am familiar with its premise, but if I weren't I don't know why I would watch it! It is a good Mormon comedy if you are Mormon or are strongly familiar with Mormons.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/22/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A funny cheezy LDS comedy.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/13/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Interesting to have a basketball movie in a church setting.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/15/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Totally bombed a movie with such a great premise and a funny cast. The idea of it ended up being much better than the execution, which seemed at times like actors were improvising scenes. The basketball scenes tried to tap into physical humor that wasn't funny. The gag with Gary Coleman was only funny if you didn't know he was going to be in the movie. And with how awful the protagonists acted, the movie couldn't even tap into the lovable underdog you see in most sports movies. Both sides were pretty unlikeable. This was a huge disappointment.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

01/26/23

Full Review

Audience Member

(First and only viewing - In my mid-twenties)

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/19/23

Full Review

joel h

I'm giving Church Ball two stars - one for each time I laughed. It's not the actors' fault that this movie isn't good, the blame falls squarely on the shoulders of the writers, producers, editors and the director. It's not a complete waste of time, but it's not one I can recommend or watch again.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

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Kurt Hale

Director

Fred Willard

Bishop Linderman

Andrew Wilson

Dennis

Clint Howard

Gene

Gary Coleman

Charles

Ross Brockley

Mickey

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Synopsis

Dennis Buckstead (Andrew Wilson), a basketball coach for his church, faces a nearly impossible task: The bishop (Fred Willard) demands that he lead a misfit team to victory in the upcoming championship game. With 20 years of losses behind it, Dennis' team is in danger of being remembered as the worst ever to play the game.

Director: Kurt Hale
Producer: George Dayton
Screenwriter: Paul Eagleston, Stephen Rose, Kurt Hale
Distributor: Halestone Distribution
Production Co: Halestorm Entertainment
Rating: PG (Mild Language|Rude Humor)
Genre: Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Mar 17, 2006, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 2, 2020
Box Office (Gross USA): $465.0K
Runtime: 1h 31m
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)