2006-11-20

The Benchwarmers

[Amazon Link] [3.0 stars] [IMDB Link] [Tomato Link]

Better than you might expect. Better than it probably has any right to be. The basic idea is that three grown-ups, who had (putatively) been bullied and ridiculed as kids trying to participate in youth baseball, decide to form a team and compete against kids.

No, really.

The team is made up of Rob Schneider, David Spade, and Jon Heder, a combination with lots of experience in playing oddballs. They have a champion in Jon Lovitz, also despised as a teen, who's now rich (When talking to a contractor building a new stadium, he advises: "Keep it under a billion, that's all I got... on me.")

The movie works on its own terms, because it's unafraid to be as tasteless, lowbrow, and stereotypical as you can be in a PG-13 movie. It embaces and explores these qualities, in fact. You won't be culturally poorer if you miss it. But if you're easily amused (and I am) it's pretty amusing.

Posted 2006-11-20 6:00 PM EST
Last Modified 2007-08-28 1:12 PM EDT
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