A slapdash sports comedy where dimwitted fart jokes and slapstick humor triumphs over genuine laughs

Rating: 3/10 (8 July 2017)

The Benchwarmers is about as dimwitted and sophomoric as you come to expect from a comedy produced by Adam Sandler. This movie marks yet another attempt by a comedic trio trying to garnish laughs through absent-minded humor ranging from fart jokes, to pee jokes, to seemingly nonstop slapstick gags that may have been funny when watching 'The Three Stooges' back in the 60s. Nowadays, those jokes just fall flat. Stepping the foot into the main roles are Rob Schneider and David Spade, allies of the Adam Sandler filmography, and Jon Heder, who gained popularity for his role in 'Napoleon Dynamite'. And if these actors prove anything here, it is that juvenile humor including jokes of the scatological category just aren't funny anymore, unless you are an elementary schooler where that humor is sadly still popular in that demographic. If there are any benefits raised from this slapdash comedic, it is that there are just a few laughs, but they come few and far in between. This film follows Gus (played by Rob Schneider), a man with a low-paying job and a wife named Liz (played by Molly Sims); not much else. After beating a group of kids who he witnesses bullying a poor little boy in a game of baseball, he and his friends Clark (played by Jon Heder), a paperboy, and Richie (played by David Spade), a video store clerk, form a baseball team and play in a tournament against Little League teams, and recruit a millionaire techno geek Mel (played by Jon Lovitz) as their coach.
There are plenty of comedies with sports serving as the narrative core that manage to shower in some clever laughs and charm to invite moviegoers in for a good time. This movie is not one of them. The best time this film has to offer to shooting a few somewhat funny jokes once every fourth time the characters on the baseball field making fools out of themselves. The main problem is that these actors seem to have nothing better to do than to plunge deep into dull sophomore humor to the point where you feel like your brain cells slowly depleting as the movie goes on. It soon becomes a continuous and almost predictable streak of how many times Jon Heder's character bangs his head or whacks himself with the bat from just being plain silly. And for the lowest common denominator, several scenes of characters farting another character's face. Unless you are a child in elementary school, this comedic gimmick is just not funny. Arguably the actor who delivers the most laughs is Rob Schneider, and his delivery of goods come far and few in between. While this is not his worst role, it certainly isn't one to leave you cheering with laughter. The rest of the actors including Jon Heder and David Spade are given nothing valuable to work with other than to spit loads of obnoxious dialogue, while Nick Swardson is tasked with nothing but to act like a goofy man-child who has fear of being out in the sun each time he makes his way on screen. At the end, the story tries to win your heart by sporting a cheesy little message about the consequences of the bullying. It is a good one, but definitely not one many people haven't heard before.
The Benchwarmers is a slapdash sports-themed comedy that suffers from an excess of dimwitted potty humor and dull slapstick gags. This film falls so short of comedic diamonds it willy likely to leave you checking the clock more often than investing your attention to the screen. If one were the edit out this movie and make an online clip consisting of the funny parts, they would be looking at around one minute. Now that is disappointing.