On July 25, 2006 Sony Pictures Entertainment released on DVD the Happy Gilmore production of The Benchwarmers. The Benchwarmers is the story of three adult men who were unmercifully picked on by bullies as children, and so to prevent future nerds from feeling the same kind of embarrassment as well as teach the bullies a lesson, they decide to form a three man team to play the popular jock little leaguers and hopefully beat them at there own game. So with the support of their friend Mel, (Jon Lovitz) Gus (Rob Schneider) Richie (David Spade) and Richie’s younger brother Clark (John Heder) Start there round robin tournament against these cruel hearted children.

Now if that seems like a very short summary of the film, it’s because that’s it, that’s the whole film. Yes there are a few funny scenes in benchwarmers, but honestly it’s just not enough. Unfortunately this is just another flop from happy Gilmore productions an Adam Sandler company which is very much hit and miss. The director, Dennis Dugan has also directed the other Sandler films that are out there, and don’t get me wrong there’s been some funny movies made by this close group of friends, but this just isn’t one of them.

First of all I really believe the casting was off, its nice that they were trying to cast Rob Schneider in a role that’s not nerdy for a change, but quite honestly its' far-fetched to cast him as the jock of the group. Then there’s David Spade, who he got the right role and played it perfectly but really the nerdy and scared smartass that he plays is him to a tee anyway. As far as Jon Heder goes I am sorry but, yeah your Napoleon Dynamite, we get it. He’s one actor that’s letting himself get typecast and frankly I think it only worked once for him. The funny thing to me was the role of Howie was played by Nick Swardson, who’s also a co-writer on the film. I felt the same way about his role in The Benchwarmers as I did in Grandma's Boy (which he also co-wrote) - he needs more of a lead role because he’s by far the most talented new-comer in the bunch and the few scenes he does get are extremely funny and played perfectly. I did like one other character a little and that was Mel played by Jon Lovitz, who is always funny in the supporting roles he gets, well as long as they consist of a nerdy nitwit.

But again the few funny scenes in Benchwarmers doesn’t cut it to make it a good film -- it was too slow paced to start with -- but the scenes that did give you any laughter were entirely to0 spaced out. As far as the storyline goes it felt to me that it was aimed at children but benchwarmers could never be marketed to that group because of the overbearing adult and obscene jokes. So to be quite honest this movie doesn’t really have a target audience.

If you’ve read any of my other reviews you’ll see that I don’t think a film has to be believable to be good but for some reason with Benchwarmers I can't get past the fact that everyone, parents, townspeople, coaches, and children alike don’t have any issues with the fact that three (and only three which is strange enough) grown men are playing a bunch of little league teams. I mean everyone takes it seriously like it’s an everyday occurrence. But the weak storyline and acting aside, the film work was average at best ( I guess the budget wasn’t spent there either), and with a runtime of 85 minutes there was just nothing happening.

So I guess if you forced me i'd have to admit there were a few funny scenes, and like I said a little good acting but all in all I can’t recommend anyone watch this film. Matter of fact I think my giving benchwarmers a C is the most generosity ive had in a while. If you’re wondering about the extras by the way, there’s no lack of them but what is there is a waste of time. Being much longer than the film you’ll find commentary from the director Dennis Dugan, There’s also commentary with David Spade and Jon Heder, which really just consists of them goofing of the whole time with very little at all to do with the film. There’s also two very short minutes of deleted scenes that really aren’t worth watching as are the rest of the bonus materials on the DVD. So benchwarmers is on DVD everywhere now and I recommend to everyone that you at the very least wait until its on cable to see it rather than wasting the money on the DVD, because I really believe its not worth owning. To Happy Gilmore Productions all I can say is…better luck next time.