Flashback Review: The Benchwarmers

2006 had some good comedies including “Idiocracy,” Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny,” “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby,” and one of my all-time favorites, “Borat.” Although many movie goers laughed their butts of praising them, they had to endure unfunny stinkers like “The Shaggy Dog,” “Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties” and the worst offender of ’em all, “Zoom.” 2006 wasn’t a great year for Tim Allen. One comedy still holds up better than the aforementioned critical flops, “The Benchwarmers.”

Released on April 7th 2006, a month before “X-Men: The Last Stand,” The Benchwarmers earned negative reviews from critics. Despite poor reception, that didn’t stop it from recouping expenses at the box office. The 2024 MLB World Series is ongoing until September 29.

Today’s review contains no SPOILERS. I’m giving you a chance to see one of my guilty pleasures.

Homerun & Strike Out Elements

Homerun: Rob Schneider, David Spade & Jon Heder all did a decent job for their respective performances.

Other Cast Members such as Jon Lovitz, Craig Kilborn, Tim Meadows & Nick Swardson all did a decent job for their respective performances.

Doug Jones (Pan’s Labyrinth, Crimson Peak, The Shape of Water) provides the voice of a robotic butler named, Number 7.

Adam Sandler produced the film courtesy of his production company, Happy Madison.

Humor contains a bunch of funny as heck moments. I couldn’t stop laughing. Every single joke is ten times hilarious than these unfunny comedies from 2006. You can tell this was a bad year for comedy.

• High School Musical
• Big Momma’s House 2
• The Pink Panther
• Date Movie
• Doogal
• Madea’s Family Reunion
• Failure to Launch
• The Shaggy Dog
• The Wild
• RV
• Just My Luck
• An Inconvenient Truth (counts as a comedy because Al Gore is a Looney Tune)
• The Break-Up
• Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties
• Little Man
• You, Me and Dupree
• My Super Ex-Girlfriend
• Zoom
• Material Girls
• Employee of the Month
• Man of the Year
• The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause
• Deck the Halls
• Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj

Cinematography didn’t go through technical issues.

Chemistry between Gus, Richie & Clark serves as the main highlight. The latter two are inexperienced geeks who managed to become good at baseball.

Mel owns some Star Wars memorabilia at his mansion. He even owns Adam West’s batmobile.

During the final baseball game, Richie mentioned “Rambo.” Coincidentally, Slyvester Stallone reprised his role as Rocky Balboa in the sixth “Rocky” movie.

If you have a good eye, there’s a scene or two with Richie working at a video store. Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man” appears in the background on a TV attached to a wall. By the way, there’s a poster of “Spider-Man 2.” Speaking of Spidey, he’s a playable character in the video game, “Marvel Ultimate Alliance.” It came out the same year as The Benchwarmers.

Besides playing Richie’s agoraphobic brother, Howie, Nick co-wrote the script with Allen Covert. I think Howie’s named after Howie Manel. He’s known for being a germophobic.

Somebody farts on a guy’s face. A similar fart joke was also used in Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties & “Click.”

One character wears a Fonzie t-shirt from “Happy Days.” Henry Winkler played Mr. Sandler’s father in Click. Gotta love in-jokes.

A Plot Twist changes everything. Much better than M. Night Shyamalan’s “Lady in the Water.”

Former MLB player, Reggie Jackson appears as himself training the heroes to become pro baseballs players.

Elle King (Rob’s real-life daughter) makes a cameo appearance as a goth kid’s girlfriend watching TV.

Terry Crews and sportscaster, Dan Patrick make cameo appearances. The former also made a cameo in Click and played Dwayne Camcho in Idiocracy.

Strike Out: The Second Act ends with our heroes ending their partnership in a temporary break-up. I find it predictable in buddy cop and romantic comedies. You know a pair or two will make put aside their differences and finish what they started.

The movie ends with a Freeze Frame. I can’t take them seriously. Why? Because I tend to poke fun at ’em like a narrator of a cheesy soap opera.

The Final Verdict: B, FOR BELIEVABLE!

The Benchwarmers is a rare Happy Madison movie without Adam Sandler that’s pretty good along with “Grandma’s Boy.” The former is one of my guilty pleasures growing up. I’m baffled why many critics hated it. It’s not THAT terrible like Tim Allen’s Razzie nominated stinkers, Zoom, The Shaggy Dog, The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause. Ignore the haters, give The Benchwarmers a shot.