Remember that David Spade movie "The Benchwarmers"?

Poor Chris Klein. One has to wonder which powerful Hollywood executive he refused to blow to deserve such a career.

True, but Lovitz never stood a chance at being off-brand Keanu Reeves and Klein did. That's gotta hurt extra hard.

THE BENCHWARMERS

3/10


Even though THE BENCHWARMERS had one of those "a bunch of executives put together random ideas" premises that were all the rage in the 90s, it strangely came out in 2006... but at least it stood out. At least in the way that someone could recognize it if another person said "Do you know that movie about adults who play little league baseball and it's considered fair because they're only 3 players?" BENCHWARMERS PART 2: BREAKING BALLS (which switches baseball for softball) doesn't even have that distinction, because the players in all the teams are adults. If that wasn't generic enough, the protagonist (Ben McGrath) used to be a great player until an incident that prevented him from playing again, so now he can only be the manager (he's also a lawyer). Now, there is a unique element about it, but it's a dumb one. The incident was that he was hit in the balls and he's too traumatized. No, really. That would be a good idea for a parody, but this is a regular comedy. The scene of him getting hit is played for laughs, but the concept of the trauma itself isn't. Was that the 1st time in his life he was hit down there? Nobody gave him a pep talk? What am I even saying?! He didn't need one! He was and still is a grown man! The 1st installment's soundtrack had a lot of current hits, and I'm glad that this sequel made 13 years later has songs of the same genres despite them not being popular anymore. It means that the makers cared more about keeping the same tone rather than just pander to the modern mainstream. If only that attitude had been present when the jokes were being written, because they're not funny. The original's baseball scenes were well-filmed and edited (especially in how they were synchronized with a song). Here, there's nothing noteworthy about the softball scenes. Hell, the courtroom scenes are more entertaining, and there's only a couple of them! How is that possible?! Both movies have a genuinely surprising plot twist regarding a main character's past, but the one here only seems to exist to create friction between the heroes right before the climax so they can make up later. I guess the game itself isn't enough for a central conflict? The one in the 1st movie at least helped to subvert the "nerds fighting back against popular bullies" sub-genre. Chelsey Reist, Liam Hughes and Audrey Smallman's performances are decent, but Jon Lovitz's is bad. Jason McKinnon's isn't, but it seems like he was only hired after Billy Eichner had turned down the role. Chris Klein overdoes it whenever he tries to be funny, but he's believable in the scenes where Ben teaches things to his son Jack, because he sells the wise and charmingly low-key dad act.
1/10
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This is what happens when a movie studio decides they have TOO MUCH money.

Jon Heder was hilarious in The Benchwarmers and Blades of Glory. Neither movie was like Napoleon Dynamite.

Heder also starred in the hilarious School for Scoundrels.