You’re
courting critical bashing when you have Rob Schneider star as the most
athletic member of your ensemble, but that’s just what The Benchwarmers
does. A formulaic and somewhat slapdash comedy of the wholly expected —
about a trio of misfits and social pariahs who enter into a round-robin
competition to strike a score-settling blow for underdogs — the movie
coasts by on its chaotic charm and quip-laden dialogue, the perfect
lazy Sunday rental for genre devotees and young fans of the cast.
After
catching some nasty neighborhood bullies picking on a younger kid, Gus
(Schneider), Richie (David Spade) and Clark (Jon Heder) earn the
appreciation of said kid’s Segway-riding, millionaire father, Mel (Jon
Lovitz), who eventually comes up with the idea of sponsoring a
tournament in order to turn the tables on teen tormenters past and
present and fund a new stadium for all the oddballs and nonconformists.
Template mayhem ensues.
Directed by Dennis Dugan (Happy Gilmore, Big Daddy)
from a script by fellow Adam Sandler acolytes Allen Covert and Nick
Swardson (who also costars as Richie’s sun-fearing brother, Howie), the
film isn’t a masterwork of subtlety, and it surely overdoes the
titty-twister, fart and poop humor. Some of the acting, too — from
ex-NFLers Sean Salisbury and Bill Romanowski, plus Craig Kilborn —
dashes past the comically villainous into downright derisible.
(Seriously, Kilby, you gave up your own late night show for this?)
Still, the rapport between the guys is warm and genuine, and it’s
actually refreshing to see Lovitz play a character other than a total
schlub.
Even if Heder’s Napoleon Dynamite shtick is wearing a bit
thin — though here it’s arguably still a function of the script, he
needs a complete straight man role or random indie drama, stat — he at
least nicely counterbalances Spade’s snarky doofus persona. And
speaking of Spade, by the way, he digs further down into his filmic bag
of humiliating hairstyles, coming up with a bowl cut-and-pencil-’stache
combo that’s part mop-headed Alex D. Linz, part serial killer John
Waters aficionado (no wonder Richie’s a video store clerk). I’m usually
not a fan of wigs representing a character’s defining characteristic,
but here it oddly works.
Available in a regular Amray case on a disc made to look like a baseball, The Benchwarmers
is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, preserving the aspect
ratio of its theatrical exhibition, with an English language 5.1 audio
track and a clutch of optional subtitles (English, Spanish, French,
Portuguese, Thai, Chinese, Korean). Unfortunately, though, the presence
of discrete audio tracks in French, Spanish, Portuguese and Thai (!),
plus two feature-length commentary tracks, really slows down the disc’s
interactivity, which is a bummer. Director Dugan sits for one of those
audio commentaries, in which he opines that guest star Reggie Jackson’s
forearms are seemingly “sculpted by Rodin,” and says, “Some people
think there are too many booger and fart jokes in the movie; I
disagree.”
It’s self-deprecating co-stars Heder and Spade, however (the latter
a commentary track’s best friend) who provide much more humorous
insight on their feature-length chat. There’s an anecdote or two for
every cast member or bit player, no matter how small. Four ultra-brief
featurettes — two separate edited-together, thematically-grouped series
of EPK interviews, one bit centering on Swardson’s “best moments” as
Howie, and another focusing on the aforementioned Reggie Jackson — are
also included alongside a collection deleted scenes, but where’s the
extended gag reel? That omission and issues of interactivity bump this
release down a half-grade. C+ (Movie) C+ (Disc)