The Benchwarmers

Movie review by Cynthia Fuchs, Common Sense Media
The Benchwarmers Poster Image

Common Sense says

age 14+

Dreadful sports comedy is a waste of time.

PG-13 2006 80 minutes
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Parents say

age 11+

Based on 21 reviews

Kids say

age 11+

Based on 73 reviews

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A Lot or a Little?

The parents' guide to what's in this movie.

What Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Benchwarmers is premised on adult men behaving like angry children. The movie features repeated adolescent jokes. There's some profanity and many sexual references. An adult eats his nose boogers and a bug; bullies fart on target-boys; agoraphobic character mocked repeatedly for being pale (afraid of the sun, whiny, and fearful); joke about urine looking like "apple juice"; one boy spits when he talks (Schneider imitates, supposedly to make boy feel less strange, but mostly to prolong a feeble joke); one coach appears "gay," as if this undermines his macho behavior. The games include slapstick, hard-thwacking violence: bats hit bodies, heads, and squirrels in a tree (sending them flying apparently to their deaths); balls hit bodies, bare hands, and heads.

Community Reviews

Kiim88
Kiim88 Adult
March 6, 2023
age 5+

A funny family movie with a positive anti-bullying message.

Lots of laughs all round. This movie can also help as a great convo starter with the kids about the negative effects of bullying and why it's important to treat people with respect and dignity.

This title has:

Educational value
Great messages
Great role models
PrincessButtercup2011
PrincessButtercup2011 Adult
May 3, 2022
age 10+

Positive messages and role models ARE present in this movie

This is a great movie for older kids or kids who are mature enough to wade through some silliness and get the overall message. The fact that Common Sense Media says there are no positive role models and no positive messages is baffling and—I think—reveals some bias in reviewing movies. Yes, this move is silly. Yes, this movie is a bit cliche. No, this movie will not win any Oscars. BUT, there are some redeeming qualities in the sense of messaging and positive characters. The main character, Gus, is a former bully who has learned from his past behavior and spends time with “outcasts.” He wants them to feel included, empowered, and capable. As a result, the outcasts find their own presuppositions about themselves are actually wrong, and they discover they are capable of greatness, too. To that end, I would say this movie *does* have a positive message and at least one positive role model. If your kiddo can get past some mildly crude humor (farting in faces, etc.), then this is absolutely worthy of family movie night.

This title has:

Great messages
Great role models
See all 21 parent reviews

What's the Story?

In THE BENCHWARMERS, athletic landscaper Gus (Rob Schneider), aging video-store clerk Richie (David Spade), and nose-picking newspaper delivery boy Clark (Jon Heder) -- form a baseball team to challenge the bullies who pick on neighborhood nerds. Though Clark can't hit or field and Richie can't hit or catch, Gus is a power hitter and hot-shot pitcher too, and so the Benchwarmers beat all comers. Their self-appointed mission catches the attention of another adult nerd, now a "gazillionaire," Mel (Jon Lovitz), who buys the three players uniforms, a traveling bus, and equipment, and apparently funds the kids who broadcast the games over the net, which allows for repeated shots of other nerd children watching on their laptops.

Is It Any Good?

An Adam Sandler movie without Adam Sandler, The Benchwarmers offers the worst of all worlds. While nerds all over appear to cheer on the team, the Benchwarmers only recycle the same problems as the nerds face when they are bullied. Beating the bullies plainly humiliates them, but how satisfying can that be? Certainly, the "good teams" players don't deserve the verbal abuses they get from their coaches.

Even if you take the plot as yet another revisitation of the Bad News Bears plot (triumph of the underdogs), the film can't think of an original way to show nerdiness, and so its fundamental signs are as stereotypical and tedious as the meanness displayed by the bullies: Nerds love Star Wars, eat peanut butter and jelly, spend all day at their computers, and, if male, can't talk to girls. "Underdog" sports movies usually make the protagonists endearing; this one makes you hope they lose their games.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the concept of revenge: Is it possible to feel better if you make other people feel badly?

  • How do the Benchwarmers speak for all self-claimed nerds who feel bullied?

  • How does apologizing make Gus feel better than beating all the kids' teams?

Movie Details

Our Editors Recommend

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    age 12+

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