La Revanche des losers

I absolutely love this whacky comedy/nerdy movie maybe cause I have autism I connect with it differently! Denis Dugan has made a bunch of silly comedies this is one of the most ridiculous out there not appreciated much and it's understandable. I love the humor so much and how it flows; I never get tired of it maybe cause I respect quirky beings. Benchwarmers is wonderfully fun for what it is!

"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.

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.

Entertaining feel-good faire about a landscaper (Rob Schneider) and his two nerd best friends (Jon Heder and David Spade) who take on the bullies of their state in a winner-take-all baseball tournament. The hook is that all the bullies are 12 years old or under. You pretty much get what you expect: stereotypical good guys vs bad guys , fart jokes, large breasted women WAY too hot to be interested in the likes of the downtrodden three, a good 80's-90's Adam Sandler-esquire soundtrack and numerous sight gags that make you squirm in your seat. What was unusual was the movie was actually pretty good. All the actors played their parts reasonably well and Heder was hilarious. (Although I half expected that there was some sort of product placement for a tanning system in this movie as everyone but Heder appeared to be way too healthy looking.) Definitely worth the price of a ticket.

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.