The Benchwarmers (2006)

Simply A Masterpiece

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

The Benchwarmers does not star Adam Sandler, but it is a Happy Madison creation starring some of Sandler's best friends. His other best friends were off doing his other creation entitled "Grandma's Boy" which as much better than this. This was back in the days when Sandler films were actually good and funny. This is not great, but it has good morals and truly funny moments. The Benchwarmers is about the bullying misadventures of three geeky friends: landscaper Gus Matthews (Rob Schneider); video clerk Richie Goodman (David Spade); and paper boy Clark Reede (Jon Heder). All have been subjected to bullying their whole lives and want it all to stop. When the guys witness a group of little league kids harass a nerdy rich boy, it reaffirms Gus' gift for baseball and gives Clark and Richie confidence. The guys meet the kid's billionaire father, Mel (Jon Lovitz), who has an idea to start a baseball tournament with them playing against the little leaguers. Just as the guys are blossoming and doing well in the tournament, a secret about one of them is revealed that changes everybody's perspective of the issue.Yes, there are flaws. Yes, most of them are forgivable. Mel says to start a round-robin tournament, but it is just regular one-game elimination: completely different from round- robin. Then there's the scene when they meet Mel: it makes no sense. Then there's Schneider's wife being played by Molly Sims: its always odd seeing a a hot chick that's taller than her ugly husband.Then there are flaws that are unforgivable (two to be exact). The first deals with the status of bullies and the victims. The Benchwarmers themselves--the geeks--have dead-end jobs that's just sad to see 40-year-olds do. Then the guys that bullied them when they were younger, (and still do) are successful business men and own their own stores. This is a very wrong message to send to people--if you bully, you will become a success. That's so wrong! A terrible message! If anything, it is the other way around!The other flaw is the reveal that I mentioned that changes the fate. It turns out that Gus was the biggest bully in his town at the time who picked on everybody hardcore. He picked so hard on one kid who was a midget so badly that he had to be put in a mental institution. Gus feels tremendous guilt and does not want to have kids because he is afraid of karma. When the story breaks, he gets kicked out of the team and everybody betrays him. I've always hated that aspect. Gus says on TV how bad bullying is. And it is very evident how much he's changed. He's such a great person now. He's not the same person he once was! His eyes are filled up with tears as he tries to hold back his cry of guilt after his friends find out about it. Does that not say something!? It leads to some good talk about bullies and everything, but they could have had that talk if the before part was changed!Luckily, the comedy makes up for this. Then there's how well the characters were written.

This movie was awesome I have no idea why the reviews are so bad for this movie. Honestley I've seen this movie like 50 times and it never gets old! Rob Dave and Jon had amazing chemistry in this movie. I hope they make a sequel. It was very funny and inspiring at the same time. People just hate on this movie because they hate the actors. The acting was good the jokes were hilarious and it was original. I grew up with this movie and in the future I will keep watching it. (not all the time obviously) Rob Scheider is a great actor and people don't give him enough credit for what he does. Same with David Spade hes hilarious and deserves more than he gets. The funny thing is that Adam Sandler made this movie and most people do not know that.

masquerading as harmless fun with SNL retreads, some comic scenes are obliterated by a final message, i.e. the worst losers can pretend to be winners if their opponents bend over backwards to arrange it; it's not everyone's a winner, it's not non-competitive summer camp with absurd games- as if kids don't know who is fast and who is slow, who can catch and who can't; and it's even beyond gump where serendipitous events conspire to arrange success; dreadful message is you can win if everyone else makes sure that they lose; geez- and the senior losers all get hot blondes in the end; right; there is no saving grace, no silver lining, and who knows why IMDb insists that any review must be ten lines long

I've always had a soft spot in my heart for these kind of dumb comedies, especially ones by Happy Madison. The Benchwarmers really had the potential to be the kind of movie that you watch with your buddies while having a couple brews late on a Saturday night when you don't have anything better to do. Unfortunately, it ends up just being meh.The best thing about the film is easily it's cast. Everyone does a great job in their roles and are clearly having a lot of fun which makes the film a bit more enjoyable to watch. Even Rob Schneider who I normally don't enjoy in lead roles does a good job here. The great Jon Lovitz also has a supporting role as a millionaire and has many of the best scenes in the film.The main problem with the film is that it's lazy. These films obviously aren't meant to be Oscar contenders, but so many of the jokes go for the lowest forms of juvenile humor that it feels like it was written by 10 yearolds. That's not to say their aren't laughs to be had with The Benchwarmers, but not as many as you'd hoped.The Benchwarmers isn't terrible like some of Happy Madisons other films such as Bucky Larson. It does have it's moments and the cast does a great job, but it's filled with so much lazy juvenile humor that it never reaches the heights it's underdog heroes reach by the end of the film. It's worth a watch, but don't expect it to have much re-watch value.