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Church Ball

Play trailer Poster for Church Ball PG 2006 1h 31m Comedy Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist 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.

Critics Reviews

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Ted Fry Seattle Times 04/28/2006
2.5/4
... a carefree, underdog sports comedy. Go to Full Review
Richard Nilsen Arizona Republic 04/13/2006
1/5
Jokes fall flat, characterizations are sketchy at best, setups never receive their payoff, unnecessary subplots slow the already glacial pace. Go to Full Review
Richard Propes TheIndependentCritic.com 09/05/2020
1.5/4.0
Hale borrows from nearly every other irreverent sports film ever made. Go to Full Review
Luke Y. Thompson New Times 04/29/2006
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. Go to Full Review
William Arnold Seattle Post-Intelligencer 04/28/2006
C-
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. Go to Full Review
Phil Villarreal Arizona Daily Star 04/13/2006
1/4
Air ball . . . Air ball . . . Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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05/26/2020 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. See more 11/26/2011 A funny cheezy LDS comedy. See more 08/11/2011 Interesting to have a basketball movie in a church setting. See more 04/11/2010 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. See more 02/18/2010 (First and only viewing - In my mid-twenties) See more joel h 02/01/2010 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. See more Read all reviews
Church Ball

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Movie Info

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)