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The Benchwarmers (2006)

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12

Average Rating: 3.1/10
Reviews Counted: 69
Fresh: 8 | Rotten: 61

A gross-out comedy that is more sophomoric than funny, The Benchwarmers goes down swinging.

18

Average Rating: 3.2/10
Critic Reviews: 11
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 9

A gross-out comedy that is more sophomoric than funny, The Benchwarmers goes down swinging.

audience

71

liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 396,623

My Rating

Movie Info

Three guys with little athletic ability strike a blow for everyone chosen last at recess in this comedy. Clark (Jon Heder), Gus (Rob Schneider), and Richie (David Spade) are three geeky guys who have spent most of their lives being humiliated by bullies and taunted by people with greater hand-eye coordination than they possess (which is nearly everyone). While the three guys love baseball, they've been treated like losers on the diamond ever since their days riding the pine in Little League. One

PG-13, 1 hr. 25 min.

Comedy

Allen Covert, Nick Swardson

Jul 25, 2006

$57.7M

Sony Pictures Releasing

Cast

All Critics (73) | Top Critics (11) | Fresh (8) | Rotten (62) | DVD (13)

The three losers play a series of Little League teams, snatching victory from the jaws of slapstick humiliation.

April 12, 2006 Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | Comment
Entertainment Weekly
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Schneider winds up playing straight man to Spade, who once again relies on his snarky coward shtick, and Heder, who comes across like someone doing a bad imitation of ... well, Heder himself in Napoleon Dynamite.

April 10, 2006 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It's a movie packed with so many idiot characters that Rob Schneider is cast as the cool guy -- and sort of pulls it off.

April 10, 2006 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | Comment
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Filled with sprays of vomit, fountains of spit and enough hot body air to launch a flotilla of passenger balloons, The Benchwarmers is the sort of trash that Hollywood does really well.

April 10, 2006 Comment
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Sandler's latest ode to projectile vomiting, passing gas, gay jokes and physical insults to the groin is basically a feeble cross between The Revenge of the Nerds and The Bad News Bears.

April 10, 2006 Comment
New York Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

If Sandler had avoided the lowest-common-denominator humor, recast the adult ballplayers as kids, and found a decent director, he might have had a worthwhile movie. Oh, wait -- it's already been made. And it's called Bad News Bears.

April 10, 2006 Full Review Source: New York Daily News | Comment
New York Daily News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

In the last line of the film, as the final credits thankfully disappear, Richie casually says "that was a waste of time wasn't it?" Yes. Definitely.

October 10, 2009 Full Review Source: Screenwize | Comment
Screenwize

It doesn't take a genius to work out what's on offer: toilet humour, physical comedy, more toilet humour and an Americans-do-it-best schmaltzy climax.

October 29, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

...ultimately nothing more than a silly, egregiously sentimental comedy...

December 1, 2006 Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews | Comment
Reel Film Reviews

You won't know whether to roll your eyes or smile like a fool, but you will know you've been entertained.

October 14, 2006 Full Review Source: MovieCrypt.com | Comment (1)
MovieCrypt.com

Seems like a wasted opportunity to strike a memorable blow for nerds everywhere.

August 2, 2006 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

...there was actually a small smattering of applause when the movie ended. Whether they were clapping for the film or just the fact that it was finally over will have to remain a mystery.

July 13, 2006 Full Review Source: Film Journal International | Comment
Film Journal International

The Benchwarmers is better than it should have been. Only, that's not saying much.

June 6, 2006 Full Review Source: BBC | Comment

Even Jon Lovitz with a Batmobile, a dwarf attack in a playroom, and David Spade's best wig ever can't save this mawkish misfire.

June 2, 2006 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine

Unfunny, badly thought out and occasionally downright offensive, this is an extremely poor effort, even by the standards of other Rob Schneider movies.

June 1, 2006 Full Review Source: ViewLondon | Comment
ViewLondon

Just when the baseball slapstick starts wearing thin, a final-reel gush of truly cynical sentiment on behalf of the physically challenged sends the ordeal-factor off the scale.

June 1, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

Highbrow humour is not the film's strong point but there's no faulting the sincerity of this against-all-odds comedy.

May 20, 2006 Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald | Comment
Sydney Morning Herald

The Benchwarmers strikes out. Again and again and again.

May 13, 2006 Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | Comment
Austin Chronicle

This abysmally static comedy, the brainfart of 'the people who brought you Big Daddy' is a mess on every level %u2026 depressingly woeful.

May 13, 2006 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | Comment
Urban Cinefile

Starring Schneider and Spade, whose careers have been circling the drain for years, and Heder, who won't be far behind them if he doesn't improve his career moves.

May 12, 2006 Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review | Comment
Sacramento News & Review
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for The Benchwarmers

Not so funny. David's brother looked odd.

July 6, 2010
3niR
Dead Angel

Super Reviewer

Hilarious. A really funny comedy. A must see!

June 23, 2011
murphmann93
Bethany Murphy

Super Reviewer

    1. Gus: I made a mistake Nelson. I wish I could take it all back.
    – Submitted by Michael G (2 days ago)
    1. Ritchie: What is this? Children of the corn?
    – Submitted by Austin G (14 days ago)
    1. Clark: Makers of what? Poop?
    – Submitted by Nathan J (52 days ago)
    1. Howie: THE SUN IS NOT A MONSTER!!!
    – Submitted by Zabuza D (10 months ago)
    1. Clark: Macaroni must have steroids!
    – Submitted by Zabuza D (10 months ago)

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