BlownPotential

The Benchwarmers
Review by Thomas Huff

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
Potential: Realized

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

The Benchwarmers stars Rob Schneider, David Space, Jon Heder, Jon Lovitz and Craig Kilborn, and opens April 7^th. It is rated PG-13 for crude and suggestive humor, and for language.