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The Benchwarmers

Mediocrity from a gaggle of SNL alums and Napoleon Dynamite

By TOM MEEK | April 11, 2006

1.5 Stars

BENCHWARMERS: Sticking up for nerds, or sending up Bad News Bears?

To strike a blow for nerds, three grown men (SNL alums Rob Schneider and David Spade along with Napoleon Dynamite geek Jon Heder) play short-sided baseball against platoons of Little League bullies. Neither Richie, the 39-year-old virgin with a Flowbee cut (Spade), nor Clark (Heder), a booger-eating paperboy, is worth a damn, but Gus (Schneider) can ding in homers and pitch a shutout. Fart sniffing, tittie twisters, and an emoting agoraphobe (co-scripter Nick Swardson) fill the gaps between innings. The film does score some laughs but it’s unclear if director Dennis Dugan meant it as a lesson to empower athletically challenged kids or as a cheap, potty-mouthed send-up of The Bad News Bears. If the former, it’s far too perverse; if the latter, it’s too preachy. Either way, Jon Lovitz confirms its mediocrity as the screwball billionaire backing the trio while real-life jocks Bill Romanowski and Reggie Jackson grunt like Neanderthals.

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