Film Reviews

The Benchwarmers

• Rating:
• Director: Denis Dugan
• Starring: David Spade
• Details: US, 80mins, 12A.

Living in the shadow of bullies all their lives, postman Gus (Schneider), video store clerk Richie (Spade) and paperboy Clark (Heder) are not going to take it anymore. Challenging a team of kids - managed by their old bullying high school classmates - to a game of baseball, the three unlikely heroes find themselves in a little league competition playing for pride. When multi-millionaire and ex-nerd Mel (Lovitz) offers a brand new baseball stadium to the winners, the league takes on a more serious tone.
With fart gags (three of them), old guys giving the finger, groin mishaps, gay jokes, the accidental shaving of pet dogs, albino agoraphobics, robots (yes, robots), midgets that look like Yoda and the obvious theme (you don't have to look for it in the subtext) that 'bullies are bad', this movie has it all. Deviating from his last, more serious project, National Treasure, director Denis Dugan returns to sport for the first time since 1995's Happy Gilmore to continue with the laugh riots he started with Beverly Hills Ninja and Big Daddy. Napoleon Dynamite star Jon Heder veers from that left of centre comedy that made him famous and settles into a proper role as the goofy standout Clark while David Spade does what he does best - stands around spouting the funniest one-liners popular cinema has seen. The disappointment is Schneider who never really hits the heady heights of Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo or The Hot Chick, taking a back seat to Heder and Spade's antics. Those of you who hated Lovitz's serious turn in Todd Solondz's Happiness will delight in seeing the portly gent back on form here. P.S. Every single word of the above is a lie.

Review by Gavin Burke