Customer Reviews

The Benchwarmers [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

Produced by Adam Sandler's company, Happy Madison, this movie has a lot of elements you would come to expect from many of Adam Sandler's past comedic escapades, such as toilet humor and slapstick elements, and "Benchwarmers" makes great use of these and other elements that have delighted fans for several years. Rob Schneider, a recurring minor character actor from several Sandler films, steps up to the plate in this latest baseball comedy, which follows a growing trend of movies glorifying the low people on the social totem pole. I personally have always enjoyed seeing movies that do this, and "Benchwarmers" is no exception. Unless you are totally opposed to this type of humor, "Benchwarmers" is sure to hit a home run with your funny bone! Older children and teens particularly will find this movie a treat, but I would recommend this movie to anyone, regardless of age (with the exception of very young children), who has ever found entertainment value in Adam Sandler or the three featured actors herein!

Just as is the case with all Happy Madison-produced movies, this movie comes equipped with a crappy plot. However, also as usual, the movie manages to be funny and entertaining anyway. The characters and the humorous dialogue are what make the movie worth seeing. Rob Schneider, David Spade, Jon Heder, Nick Swardson and Jon Lovitz are all very funny in their respective roles.

My favorite characters were Richie (Spade) and his brother Howie (Swardson), who suffers from agoraphobia and does not leave the house. He fears the sun, in particular, as he believes that it is bad and that it wants to burn him. Richie finally tricks Howie into leaving the house by telling him that there is an escaped killer running loose in their town who is hell-bent on killing people named Howie. Before this, however, we also get to see Howie go to battle with 2 cute little Girl Scouts.

There are some very funny one-liners delivered in this movie. I found myself laughing out loud more than a few times, usually at something said by David Spade's character.

Jon Lovitz, Craig Kilborn, Tim Meadows and a few others do well with their supporting roles. Lovitz is particularly funny as a nerd-turned-billionaire who spitballs the idea of "The Benchwarmers" team.

I would recommend seeing the movie, but I wouldn't put it on the same level as Spade's past movies, Napoleon Dynamite or any older Sandler movies. I would place it just on the level with a Rob Schneider movie, like Deuce Bigalow. Worth watching, then decide whether or not you want to own it.

I wasn't all that enthused about watching The Benchwarmers, but the film had me laughing from the very start and really surprised me with its home run of an ending, as it featured a really effective twist on an otherwise wholly predictable story. Underdog movies like this are a dime a dozen, but The Benchwarmers is really one of the better ones. With Saturday Night Live alums every where you look (and a little helping hand from Adam Sandler as co-executive producer), this movie has the comedy covered. Sure, it's decidedly juvenile in nature, but guess what? The film's main target audience is juveniles. Whether we like it or not, growing up involves a lot of fart jokes, underwear incidents, and name-calling. The comedy is actually one of the most realistic aspects of the film, if you ask me.

So here's the deal. After watching some bully athletes torment three kids for daring to play some baseball on "their" public field, Gus (Rob Schneider) decides to drag out the old mitt and play a little ball with two of his really dysfunctional buddies, Richie (David Spade), who sports a 3 Stooges-inspired haircut and works at the local video store, and Clark (Jon Heder), a really dumb paper-delivery guy. When the snotty ball players show up again, Gus challenges them to a game - and he, Richie, and Clark actually win, thanks to Gus' baseball prowess. Other challenges roll in, and before you know it local nerd-turned-billionaire Mel (Jon Lovitz) puts together a statewide round robin tournament, with the winner earning a fancy new stadium for his town. All of those who have suffered at the hands of bullies, young and old alike, start turning up to cheer on their "Benchwarmers" 3-man baseball team. Now you might think that, in the end, something happens to Gus and his severely baseball-challenged teammates somehow manage to win the day for all of the nerds and geeks supporting them. You might think that, but you'd be wrong - sort of, anyway. The way the ending comes off is no less corny than the rest of the movie, but it is rather delightfully different and serves to reinforce the message of the whole story.

It's sort of a shame that the movie has to be PG-13, since even younger kids will get a big kick out of it, but I don't know that I would have done anything differently (well, a little less projectile vomiting, maybe). Kids can be as crude as they are cruel (and I can pretty much assure you that your little eight-year-old angel will understand every crude gag in this film). I'm just thankful the beef stew thing wasn't around when I was a kid - if you don't know what I'm talking about, just nod your head and move on because I can assure you it's nothing you would want to have stored in your personal memory banks of childhood. As for the other stuff like pulling someone else's pants down, taking a shot in the groin, losing control of a bat and hitting all sorts of things with it - it doesn't matter how old these gags are, they're still funny, dadgum it (when they happen to someone else, at least). Some of the jokes do get stretched a little too far, but I think I laughed at every one of them.

The film also has a few interesting cameos. I was thrilled when my all-time favorite player, Reggie Jackson, showed up - and he brought lots of comedy with him as he tried to turn the utterly hopeless Richie and Clark into ball players. Molly Sims and Erinn Bartlett add just the right touch of eye candy (even though there's no way, in any universe, that the salad girl would fall for David Spade's mop headed character). Still, it's nice to dream. It's also nice to laugh, and you should be doing plenty of that as you watch this film play out.

After seeing the previews for this movie, I thought that I would never EVER watch this movie. It looked sooooo bad on the prewviews. But I rented it after seen that Nick Swardson (Grandma's Boy) wrote it. I've now learned that anything Nick touches turns to comedy gold. The Benchwarmers is a surprising hit. Rob Schneider and his band of misfit losers put on a great show. The film is full of great slapstick and nerd jokes. But be warned this movie isn't for everyone. It's extremely immature (like myself). Boogers, farts, guys getting hit in between the legs, etc. After thinking this was going to be the biggest joke of a movie I ended up laughing my butt off through the whole thing.

It's hard to find a fun movie for my [...] son, but this fit the bill. Stupid, physical comedy and gross-out scenes were just what he and his friends needed for a great night in front of the TV. David Spade sports a fab Prince-Valient haircut and for once, Rob Schneider is the more "normal" of the gang. A lot of fun cameos can keep adults happy for awhile too. The nerds triumph over the jock-bullies so the message isn't too bad either.

There is an explicit lesson to "The Benchwarmers," where we are all taught that kids picking on kids is not a good thing because you can do a lot of damage. But there is also an implicit lesson here in that we are reminded once again that no matter how bad kids are to each on the ball field there are never as bad as the parent, whom we think should know better. The point of the film is that the main character, Gus (Rob Schneider), does know better and that knowledge comes from experience. When Gus sees bullies picking on the week, whether it is kids going after kids at the local practice field or people picking on his two friends, Richie (David Spade), the lonely loser recommending sex films at the local video store, and Clark (Jon Heder), the inept local newspaper boy. The three are batting balls at the field when one of the local teams tells them to get off, and Gus challenges them to a scrimmage to see who gets the field. Three to nine is not good odds, but Gus strikes everybody out and hits a home run every time he bats.

The story gets out about what happened and Mel (Jon Lovitz), the local billionaire and former nerdy kid, sets up a tournament between the three friends, now known as the Benchwarmers, and the local little league teams. The common denominator here is that the teams are apparently all coached by former bullies, namely Jerry (Craig Kilborn), Brad (Sean Sailsbury), Karl (Bill Romanowski), and Wayne (Tim Meadows). If they need to bring in a ringer (Amaury Nolasco), then they will do that because cheating is okay when you are a bully. Obviously the story is to be taken with a grain of salt; those of us who have played baseball will be a lot happier if we assume the batter cannot advance to first on a passed ball third strike. In the "don't try this at home, kids," would be Reggie Jackson's old-fashioned methods of teaching quickness and hand to eye coordination. There is also a nice little running gag regarding Mel and his impressive collection of "toys" (how cool is a Darth Vader speaker box at the gate to your mansion?).

This could have been a movie where the adults coach the loveable losers to victory on the ball field, but it goes for redemption in a different way. I ended up rounding down because it is a story that wants to have its cake and eat it too, because while Gus stands up to bullies, regardless of their age, Richie and Clark are into exchanging insults with the kids they are playing. Obviously this is for laughs, but it does sort of run counter to the spirit of the message here. Ironically, the feel good ending is generated by the kids rather than by the adults, which I suppose is as good a way as any to reinforce the message here. The reasons for Gus avoiding being around his wife, Liz (Molly Sims) when she is ovulating are consistent with the story being told, but still a bit of a stretch given the sort of person we perceive Gus to be. However, I have to say that Schenider does a credible job of playing a playing a good guy and he carries off looking like a baseball player as well (I thought he was the big flaw in the ointment for "50 First Dates," so his performance here was a nice surprise). The cast also includes Howie (Nick Swardson), as the agoraphobic brother of Richie, who has his moment in the sun, and Sarah (Erinn Barltett), the Salad Girl at the local Pizza Hut, who actually responds to Richie's advanced because the script is written that way. Final score here should come out with the helpful parts ahead of the harmful, but closer than it looks.

The Benchwarmers is a pretty funny comedy from Happy Madison, the production company owned by Adam Sandler. Accordingly, it has the same sort of underdog story you'd expect from the guy who brought us The Waterboy and Billy Madison.

The Benchwarmers are a group of three older men who were bullied in their youth and decide to stick up for the kids who are getting bullied now. The team is made up of Clark, played by Jon Heder, a paperboy with a strange attachment to his mother; Richie, played by David Spade, a video store employee with a crush on a local girl; and Gus, played by Rob Schneider, the only one of them who has any natural talent at baseball.

These guys get together with the help of an eccentric billionaire and decide to challenge the local bullies to a baseball tournament. The end result is a heartfelt comedy with lots of laughs. I think the same sort of people who enjoyed The Waterboy, The Sandlot, and Dodgeball would like this movie. It's an underdog story that shows it's not always fun to be on the winning side. I thought it was cute and I'd recommend it to a friend.

The Benchwarmers is the latest from Adam Sandler's production company Happy Madison. It features a crew of Sandler regulars, but minus Sandler himself, as he take on the role of producer for this film. Sandler-less, Sandler movies (such as January's Grandma's Boy) have had problems in the past both at the box office and with critics. Although, I don't think the goal is necessarily to turn heads in highbrow critic circles, the film aims to please the core Sandler-film demographic by drawing laughs with crude humor, uncomfortable situations, and ridiculously exaggerated stereotypes.

Comedian Mitch Hedberg used to joke, "I wish I could play little league now, I'd kick some ass." I think a lot of us secretly might wish that. And that wish plays out for three twenty-something misfits in The Benchwarmers. Director Dennis Dugan (director of Happy Madison hits Big Daddy and Happy Gilmore) heads up this latest incarnation of the decades old war between nerds vs. jocks, where somehow, on the other side of the silver screen, the nerds always seem to end up with the upper hand. Benchwarmers is a virtual parade of pseudostars as Rob Schneider (of Deuce Bigalow fame), David Spade (Joe Dirt) and Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) form an army-of-three and challenge little leaguers on the baseball diamond, with Jon Lovitz (TV's The Critic) as they're financier. Craig Kilborn (host of The Late Late Show), Molly Sims (host of MTV's House of Style), Tim Meadows (Saturday Night Live), comedian Nick Swardson and baseball great Reggie Jackson round out the cast.

The movie sinks much farther from good taste than most Sandler movies that actually star Sandler. The film would have been better served if it wouldn't have sunk to such depths of immaturity, but the quantity makes up for the quality in this case, and it did keep me laughing throughout with lots of cheap gags and strange character quirks.

Grade: C

Also recommended The Ringer (2005), The Bad News Bears (2005), Revenge of the Nerds (1984).

Check out http://www.BlownPotential.com for my latest movie reviews.

This movie wasn't great, but it was still funny enough so that I enjoyed it. I like Rob Schneider and have seen most of his other films, although I didn't know many of the other actors. Although not exactly supported by the most famous cast, Schneider and Spade were good in their roles and the plot of the underdog nerds beating the local bullies has built-in appeal. John Lovitz is a strong supporting force too as the nerdy billionaire and he has the coolest cars since Steve McQueen's avionic Barracuda in the movie, "Bullit," as he owns the cars from both Knight Rider and Batman. The nerds may be nerdy, but in the movie, all big, muscular jocks were gay and the movie kept up a running joke about that. The surprise ending when the local bullies are won over by the determined and indefatigable nerds is a nice touch. I went to see the film with a 34 year old friend (I'm 54) and his 13 and 11 year old kids and we all laughed all the way through the movie, showing that even this sort of low brow humor can cross generational boundries when it's well done. Overall a decent flick. Big Bubba says go see it and don't Bogart the popcorn.

The benchwarmers is a comedy baseball movie starring stars Rob Schneider,John Heider and more.These actors are really funny guy you probably seen Rob Schneider in movies like `the animal` and John Heider in `napoleon dynamite`they are a winning combinaison.
The movie is really funny but some viewers wont like it because of some parts and stuff but if you dont really care about that its a great movie.

STORYLINE:I just LOVE this movie the humour is exellent and i was laughing most of the time if you wanna laugh then watch this.The story is great its 3 guys who plays baseball against kids,but you dont need to like baseball to enjoy this movie.They get poeple`s attention and they get signed as a team`the benchwarmers`.Gus is the main player in the benchwarmers and his wife wants to start a family he has to deal with both.Hilarious situations happens all the time the movie was solid from beggening to end.

The movie was incredible everybody in the audience seemed to love it.There are lots of funny scenes like john heider unintentienly throwing his baseball bat at squirrels.The benchwarmers arent really good at baseball only Gus is talented.But the rest of the team gets better,they play playoffs at one point.

APPRECIATION:The movie was very funny i know some will complaint about the humour and `its not for kids` stuff its not a movie for kids.It doesnt mean you cant watch it i think im old enough to watch what i want.The movie was really good it keept me laughing most of the time i will buy it when it comes out.

OVERRAL:Well if you like humour and wanna laugh give this a try 5 stars!