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The Benchwarmers (2006) More at IMDbPro »

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201 comments in total

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93 out of 142 people found the following comment useful :-
You either love these kinds of movies, or you hate them., 8 April 2006

Author: Psycho_N8_Phd from United States

I really think that's the only issue with this film. If you've been a fan of Adam Sandler's work (this is a Happy Madison production), you'll like this movie. Not only was it produced by Sandler, but it was co-written by one of his longtime buddies Allen Covert. If you go into this movie not knowing what to expect, that's your own fault. I know this movie won't be received well by critics, but when has ANYTHING that Sandler's done ever been? Ontop of that it features Jon Heder aka Napoleon Dynamite. To me, this was a huge added bonus. I love Sandler movies, and I loved Napoleon Dynamite. Many people feel Heder's a terrible actor, but I think his delivery is hysterical. I found myself laughing throughout this film, and thought it supplied Heder with more great one-liners that will be quoted for the next year. After saying that, some of you might turn your nose up at me and tell me that I wouldn't know what a good movie is, but I enjoy and cherish Casablanca, The Godfather: Part II, and Good Will Hunting as much as anybody, but forgive me if I like to enjoy a little mindless laughter at times. If you didn't like Billy Madison, The Hot Chick, or Napoleon Dynamite, you'll hate this movie, no doubt. But then why would you even go see it in the first place?

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87 out of 135 people found the following comment useful :-
better than expected, 6 April 2006

Author: mrewel-1 from United States

I expected a very poor quality comedy, but this was anything but. I am giving this movie a "10" because it is a comedy, and it made me laugh almost non-stop, so in my opinion it was an amazing success. This movie does have its share of physical humor and toilet brand jokes, but it is well rounded with quick sharp wit as well, so unless you just hate humor in general, go see this movie. My only regret was seeing it in a packed theater because a lot of the jokes were strung together in such a quick manner that the laughter from the entire theater most likely made me miss some stuff. The actor that played David Spade's brother stole the show completely. Without giving anything away I have to say I laughed almost to the point of crying, as did the entire theater it seemed, and as the credits rolled i actually heard clapping from the audience. I don't want to hype it up to much, but its hard not to, so just go see the damn movie already.

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36 out of 48 people found the following comment useful :-
If you liked the trailer, see this movie. If you hated the trailer, avoid this movie. It's that simple., 17 April 2006

Author: MovieManMenzel from United States

"The Benchwarmers" is about 3 older guys named Gus (Rob Schnieder), Richie (David Spade) and Clark (Jon Heder) who start a baseball league against the bullies in the neighborhood. After a huge crowd comes out to support the team, the guys decide to enter a competition with the bullies. The winner will get a brand new stadium. Lots of immature laughs ensue…

After walking out of "The Benchwarmers" I realized one thing. That this movie is exactly like the trailer and television spots made it out to be. This means that if you didn't find the trailer funny or amusing avoid this film because the odds are you won't like it. I, however, did enjoy the film. It's not a great masterpiece or anything like that but more of an immature film that you can laugh at and remember what it is like being a kid.

I took three of my little brothers to see the film with me and all of them really enjoyed it. Just hearing them laugh and get such a kick out of it made the film just a tad better for me. This movie is childish by its very nature. All the characters in the film reminded me of watching little kids which in my opinion was amusing seeing grown men act this way. It was funny and amusing not to mention contained a whole slue of memorable quotes that people will be quoting for many days to come.

While I enjoyed most of the movie and I can appreciate it for what it is, a stupid fun comedy, I must admit some jokes were used too much. The fart jokes came by the truckload in this film and while a few were amusing, most of them weren't. Also the amount of gay sexual undertones in this movie was too much as well. When the film first tried a gay joke, it kind of worked but as the movie continued on, the gay jokes just got worse and worse and weren't funny.

Rob Schneider for once plays a different role here. While I have always been a fan of his cheesy and overly stupid roles, I am glad to see him play a different role. He played a more mature character and for once in his career, this role didn't involve him becoming something like a woman, an animal, or a male gigolo. I enjoy Schneider much more than I probably should admit and I am glad to see he expanded his role choice for once. David Spade is really starting to grow on me. After seeing him alongside Chris Farley in "Tommy Boy" and "Black Sheep" I thought he was someone who I was going to enjoy for many years to come. But then "8 Heads in a Duffle Bag" and "Lost & Found" came out and I lost interest in him. It wasn't until 2003 when I began to like David Spade again after seeing "Dickie Roberts" and ever since then he has been growing on me again. I think it's is whole sarcastic sense of humor that I enjoy. Like his quote from the movie," I didn't know athlete had three syllables, that's AAMAAZZINNG". I kind of feel bad for Jon Heder because I like the guy but after "Napoleon Dynamite" I feel he will be playing the same role for the rest of his life. He plays a more talkative "Napoleon" in "Benchwarmers" and is a lot of fun. He is still amusing and most of his jokes work but I just wonder after a few more films will audiences be tired of him?

"The Benchwarmers" is a must for those who are fans of Schneider, Spade, or Heder. If you hate these guys or hate stupid immature comedies then avoid this movie. There is a specific target audience of adults this is geared towards and is a film that you will either enjoy (notice I didn't say love) or hate with a passion. Also it's a pretty safe film that many kids between the ages of 7 and 18 will probably enjoy more than anyone else. Every once in a while, I enjoy seeing a stupid childish comedy like "Benchwarmers" but I know what to expect when I go into it and I got just what I expected. Movies like this aren't screened to critics because studios know they will not like it. They are not the target audience. But for myself, I can still like art films and enjoy silly comedies that have no substance. If critics loosened up a bit or maybe had kids and took them to see some of these movies with them, they would realize how fun some of these films really are. "The Benchwarmers" is a fun hour and a half for those who can appreciate this film for what it is.

MovieManMenzel's final rating for "The Benchwarmers" is a 7/10.

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50 out of 79 people found the following comment useful :-
It's actually... good??, 8 April 2006

Author: greenless_pictures from Hollywood, Arizona

I really did not expect the movie to be very good. Don't get me wrong - I thought I'd like it (I love almost every baseball movie ever made) but I had no idea that the film would actually work on multiple levels.

The movie's short, but that's OK as it gets right to the point and never stops. Some of the humor is a bit childish (far jokes), but they actually balance a lot of it out with other childish jokes that make the earlier ones bearable (back to back fart jokes... I don't want to be more specific because it will spoil it when you see it).

I was very pleased with this film and will probably see it again while it's in theaters. If you're somebody who likes any Adam Sandler branded flick then you'll love this one.

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51 out of 87 people found the following comment useful :-
Really funny movie, the whole theater was cracking up, 10 April 2006

Author: danzinit from United States

This movie had a lot of the typical humor you'd expect from the three leads. May be typecasting John Heder a bit too much but he's good at the part he plays. Actually has a sweet story line. I went with my boyfriend and another couple and both the guys and the girls really enjoyed the movie and neither side was really offended by the humor. Be warned however, there are three different places in the movie where vomiting is involved(just for the funny effect it has on a situation). For anyone with a weak stomach, look away! I actually was pleasantly surprised with the minimal swearing in this movie when you consider who the cast is and who produced it (Happy Madison). Anyway, I thought it was a really good movie and would definitely recommend it.

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37 out of 62 people found the following comment useful :-
Harmless Fun, 8 April 2006

Author: twentyfour7 from United States

This movie was oddly delightful. I found it to be very entertaining, I certainly didn't find myself bored with the movie in any way. Although some of the side characters are contrived and somewhat monotonous in their weirdness factor, overall it does a very good job.

David Spade stole the show however, he did a very good job and needless to say his character was the real barrel of laughs within the film. My biggest complaint would have to be Jon Hedder (Napolean Dynamite guy). I must say he seemed to play the EXACT same character from Napolean Dynamite. All the complaints aside, this movie was entertaining and harmless fun.

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54 out of 96 people found the following comment useful :-
One of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time!, 10 April 2006

Author: NancyLou9 from United States

I can't figure out why everyone's being so hard on this movie. It isn't often I can go to a comedy at the theater and actually laugh out loud. However, when I saw this movie this weekend, I wasn't the only one who was laughing, and I mean often. There were times the audience was laughing so much I had trouble hearing the dialog.

This is, simply put, a movie about three guys, almost over the hill, who decide to play some baseball against real Little League teams in the state. It's not about some grand scheme, it's not about the glory, it's about standing up for those who were always picked last in gym, always called names for not being athletic, it's about the little guy and standing up for the underdog.

I have seen other critiques of this movie and people are complaining about the plot line, the dialog, you name it, there's something wrong with it. Don't go to the movie expecting to see any Oscar moments, they simply aren't there. If all you really want a good laugh though, go see this movie. Bill Romanowski plays a character who makes fun of his "roid rage" while he played football. Jon Heder is "almost" Napolean Dynamite, similar voice, but the character is funnier. David Spade has some issues in his personal life that really steal the show (Think Gir in Invader Zim).

I don't want to say too much more about the movie because it would give away something hilarious. As far as being a waste of my money, I plan to go to a matinée this week so I can see it in a less crowded theater and hear the dialog I missed. I can't wait for it to come out on DVD so I can watch it several more times.

At the end of the movie, the theater cut off the credits for some reason and the people in the audience fussed until they turned them back on. Not a single person left until the last line had rolled on the credits (also funny, stay and watch them).

This is one hilarious movie and it's "...freakin' awesome!"

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5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Enjoyably stupid but not exactly good., 13 April 2007

Author: Christopher Reid from Australia

I was expecting The Benchwarmers to be an overall pretty bad unfunny movie, based on the reviews and average rating it has, with the possibility of occasionally succeeding in fleeting moments as is often the case with stupid comedies. In a sense, that's exactly what it amounted to although somehow the movie managed to be watchable even when many of the jokes were missing - to it's credit it's quite fast-paced (this contributes to the movie making even less sense, not that it matters).

The plot for The Benchwarmers has nothing original to offer - basically it's about three nerds (Rob Schneider, David Spade and Jon Heder) that play a bunch of baseball games against various teams of kids. The movie is never intended to be taken seriously so the abundance of clichés is forgivable. But where the movie fails is in the lack of original humour. Classics of the stupid comedy genre such as Zoolander and Dodgeball explored new ground whereas The Benchwarmers retreats to familiar styles of comedy with the occasional stroke of genius (or perhaps that should be idiocy).

Overall, I found the movie quite enjoyable. There were a few little parts I found quite hilarious and probably won't forget for quite some time to come. Even the standard reflective speech(es) near the end came across as sincere and not completely worthless. There are also a number of familiar faces (and cameos) which help move things along. Rob Schneider, David Spade, Nick Swardson and Jon Lovitz are all good in their parts whilst Jon Heder seems to be stuck in his Napolean Dynamite character. But unfortunately these are not enough to change the fact that this is not a good movie. It is decent enough entertainment for its running time though.

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16 out of 28 people found the following comment useful :-
my thoughts about this movie (awful&crap), 9 April 2006

Author: narcatin from Canada

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This movie was awful and even the ocational funny lines didn't make up for the sappy stupid intended meaning of this movie. Even the pure basis of this movie was completely stunted. there is nothing funny about a bunch of grown men playing baseball with kid's that don't have even half their strength.

or maybe it's just that I hate the intendded steriotypes put through in this movie, and the fact that the whole steriotyping was directly stolen from revenge of the nerds.

also, even though the way this film was directed it was intended that the movie not make much sense, there were no reasons given for anything that happened in the movie... everything was just said to have happened by pure coincidence or some weird type of folly.....

overall, don't see this movie, it is crap, but if you want to see 2 or three funny jokes that are misc. embedded in this film then go see it....

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5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Silly and Gross, 1 December 2008

Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

When the owner of a minor landscaping service company Gus (Rob Schneider) sees the nerd Nelson (Max Prado) being abused by a group of baseball players, he defends the boy. The paperboy Clark (Jon Heder) tells that his friend Richie (David Spade) and he have never played baseball and Gus invites them to play in the late afternoon. However, they are challenged by the bullies and they defeat the guys. The millionaire and father of Nelson, Mel (Jon Lovitz), invites Gus, Clark and Richie to form a team called The Benchwarmers and they become the sensation of the league, with a legion of outcast cheering for the team. However, when the behavior of Gus in his childhood is discovered, the team and fans are affected.

I am a great fan of Rob Schneider, but "The Benchwarmers" is a silly and gross comedy. I know that his movies uses low level jokes and situations, but they are usually hilarious. Unfortunately the jokes in "The Benchwarmers" are not funny. Further, I am not a fan of baseball but I believe that even fans of this sport will not like this stupid and deceptive story. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Os Esquenta-Banco" ("The Benchwarmers")

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