BENCHWARMERS, THE(2006)
This is not, let me repeat, NOT, on par with Airplane,
Vacation, 50 First Dates, Trading Places, or Blazing Saddles!
But it does have some pretty decent comedians in it, and
Reggie Jackson! Not terrible and worth at least one watch. B-
From a reviewer at Amazon.com:
Credit The Benchwarmers for achieving the impossible:
It makes the 2005 remake of The Bad News Bears look like
a masterpiece. They're essentially the same film, with the
same lowbrow PG-13 humor (mostly involving bodily functions,
broad slapstick, little people, nerds, geeks, and nose-picking),
but this baseball comedy earns a few brownie points for its
heart-warming message about including non-athletic kids
(i.e. "benchwarmers") in Little League baseball, if only to
boost their confidence and give them a moment of ball-field
glory. It's a pleasant sentiment intended to encourage
under-achievers to feel good about themselves, and that
makes this loose-and-goofy vehicle for Rob Schneider,
David Spade, and Napoleon Dynamite's Jon Heder an
easygoing time-killer. Parents with good taste should be
warned that his movie has no taste at all (it's hopelessly
mired in the swamp of fart jokes and juvenile sight-gags),
and is there really a need for mild profanity in a movie
like this? That said, there are a few laughs in the efforts
of Schneider and his ultra-nerdy pals as they form a team
of rejects and go to bat against an enemy squad of current
and former school-bullies, led by former late-night talk-show
host Craig Kilborn. In addition to Schneider and Spade,
Saturday Night Live alumni Jon Lovitz and Tim Meadows
show up for an easy paycheck, and director Dennis Dugan
handles the dumb-and-dumber shtick as if he were on
vacation, sipping margaritas and shamelessly going for
the easy laughs. If that's what you're looking for, you've
come to the right place.--Jeff Shannon