Jon Heder: the new name in bad comedy

Rating: 5/10 (29 October 2006)

Three losers (Spade, Schneider and Jon Heder) who can't seem to do anything right, decide to form a three-man baseball team in order to take on other Little League teams.
The premise is obviously very stupid but sometimes these films can be entertaining. A stupid comedy is never a bad thing as long as the viewer doesn't take it too seriously. Unfortunately, The Benchwarmers isn't a funny film. The movie is a weak collection of annoying and unoriginal jokes. I'm not too surprised by this though. The script was handled by one of the writers of 8 Crazy Nights and Malibu's Most Wanted. However even with a generic script and direction, the film still had some potential to be mildly funny. One person completely ruined that chance though.
The Benchwarmers fails because of John Heder. His timing is horrible and his jokes are so lame. He tries way too hard and he just annoyed the hell out of me. Napoleon Dynamite was a one joke comedy that got old fast yet it somehow earned a lot of praise for being "original" and "hilarious". Since the film stars Jon Heder, it has a very little chance of succeeding. He sinks an already mediocre film with his performance.
Rob Schneider was okay, his performance was really just routine. He still had a few funny lines though. David Spade gave the best performance which is kind of scary. The supporting actors were un-notable and they aren't worth mentioning. Despite the presence of Jon Heder I still gave the film a 5. The reviews were brutal so I was expecting the worse but the film was pretty harmless. I didn't like the film but it did entertain a little so it wasn't too much of a waste. In the end, The Benchwarmers may register as a rental but it's still not really worth watching. Rating 5/10