The Benchwarmers

When I was in Middle school, I saw Napolean Dynamite. For one reason or another, my friends and I thought this was one of the most hilarious movies ever made. So much that we began looking for movies with Jon Heder in order that we could get more of his funny mannerisms and comedy.

Some were good... and some were bad... most were bad.

However, we did find one that was near and dear to our hearts back in the day, and that was The Benchwarmers.

Now I'm going to tell you what I tell you in every comedy movie I review. Its hard to review comedy because most of it is subjective. But I will do my best. That's my disclaimer. Let's talk about The Benchwarmers.

The Benchwarmers follows 3 grown men who seem to have always been social outcasts. You've got Gus (played by Rob Schneider) a short landscaping guy who is, with his wife trying to get pregnant. There's a little bit of an arc with that but it goes away pretty quickly so its not really worth mentioning.

Then you have Richie (played by David Spade) who is a video store clerk who lives with his brother Howie (played by Nick Swardson) who is afraid of sunlight.

And then you have Clark (played by Jon Heder) who is a paper boy who lives with his mom.

They witness some kids getting picked on by the town bullies and decide to teach the bullies a lesson by playing them in baseball. Clark and Riche have never played but Gus happens to be really good. They beat the kids and then are recruited by one of the fathers of one of the kids who was getting picked on (played by Jon Lovitz) to play in a tournament against all the baseball teams of the area. Lovitz is rich in this movie so he says that whoever wins the tournament will win a new stadium to play in. He wants to do it for all the kids who aren't able to play and are picked on, he wants to do this for the Benchwarmers.

What can I say about this movie. Its goofy. Three grown men playing against a bunch of kids? If you're going into this movie thinking its going to be anything but goofy and silly, you're kind of dumb.

Its made by the same guys who made films like Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison. Its Adam Sandler humor and if that's not your thing, chances are you're not going to like this movie.

The thing I find interesting about this movie is that while it got a 11% on Rotten Tomatoes, 65% of audiences liked the movie and despite the fact that I know its not a Oscar winning film, its still funny to this day. It was funny as a kid and its funny now.

When does anyone sit down and say I want to watch Happy Gilmore? Or Billy Madison? These movies are mainly watched on TV when nothing else is on, or if you have some friends that just want to watch a funny movie that, let's be honest, nobody really pays attention to.

The humor is not ground breaking, its just immature and goofy.

That's really all I can say about it.

It has its morals that you shouldn't make fun of someone just because they're not as athletic or they're different than you.

As far as individual performances go, they probably all just had a lot of fun with this movie. Jon Heder played the idiot, David Spade played the overconfident dweeb. Rob Schneider... played Rob Schneider.

The bad guys in this film are bad guys. They're mean for no reason and are more caricatures than people. For example, they give each other and themselves titty twisters for almost not reason. Thats an example of the humor. If you don't think random titty twisters are funny, you probably won't think this movie is that funny and is instead stupid.

In the end it will all come down to your personal preference. I personally think of this as a nostalgic comedy rather than a great movie. Its more a fun movie, I guess you could call it a guilty pleasure but I get a good laugh every time I watch it so that's what I'll say for that.

But what about you? Have you seen The Benchwarmers? What do you think about it? Comment and let me know below.

I'll leave you with this. Here are the best bits from the movie just to get a good laugh from those who have seen it. Enjoy!