''The Benchwarmers'' is a 2006 American

sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending ( black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the o ...

produced by

Revolution Studios Revolution Studios Distribution Company, LLC is an American motion picture and television studio headed by Chief Executive Officer Scott Hemming. The company focuses primarily on the distribution, remake and sequel rights to titles in its libra ...

and Happy Madison Productions, distributed by

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

, directed by

Dennis Dugan Dennis Barton Dugan (born September 5, 1946) is an American director, actor, writer, artist and comedian. He is known for his partnership with comedic actor Adam Sandler, for whom he directed the films ''Happy Gilmore'', '' Big Daddy'', '' The Be ...

, written by

Allen Covert Allen Stephen Covert (born October 12, 1964) is an American comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He is best known for his starring role in the 2006 comedy film '' Grandma's Boy'', and his supporting actor role in the movie '' Strange Wilderne ...

and

Nick Swardson Nicholas Roger Swardson (born October 9, 1976) ...

, and starring

Rob Schneider Robert Michael Schneider (; born October 31, 1963) is an American actor, comedian, and screenwriter. A stand-up comic and veteran of the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'', he went on to a career in feature films, including starri ...

David Spade David Wayne Spade (born July 22, 1964) is an American actor, stand-up comedian, television host, and writer. He was a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' in the 1990s, and he later began an acting career in both film and television. He also s ...

and

Jon Heder Jonathan Joseph Heder (; born October 26, 1977) is an American actor, best known for his role as the title character of the 2004 comedy film ''Napoleon Dynamite''. He has also appeared in the films '' Just Like Heaven'', '' The Benchwarmers'', '' ...

with

Jon Lovitz Jonathan Michael Lovitz (; born July 21, 1957) is an American actor and comedian. He was a cast member of ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1985 to 1990. Lovitz starred as Jay Sherman in '' The Critic'' and played a baseball scout in '' A League of ...

Craig Kilborn Craig Lawrence Kilborn (born August 24, 1962) is an American comedian, sports and political commentator, actor, and television host. Kilborn began a career in sports broadcasting in the late 1980s, leading to an anchoring position at ESPN's ''Spo ...

Molly Sims Molly Sims (born May 25, 1973) is an American fashion model and actress. She has been featured in campaigns by a number of major brands, including Jimmy Choo, Escada, Giorgio Armani, Michael Kors, and Chanel. She was a frequent model in the ''S ...

and

Tim Meadows Timothy Meadows (born February 5, 1961) is an American actor and comedian. He was one of the longest-running cast members on ''Saturday Night Live'', where he appeared for ten seasons and for which he received a nomination for the Primetime Emm ...

in supporting roles. It tells the story of three nerds and a billionaire forming the titular baseball team to take on the little league baseball teams. The film has developed a

cult following A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...

over the years since its release, especially amongst baseball fans. A

direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy w ...

sequel titled ''Benchwarmers 2: Breaking Balls'' was released in January 2019.

Plot

Gus Matthews, Richie Goodman, and Clark Reedy are adult "nerds" who spent their childhoods longing to play baseball, but never got the chance. When a nerdy, chubby, unathletic boy named Nelson Carmichael and his friends are bullied and kicked off a baseball diamond by a local

little league Little League Baseball and Softball (officially, Little League Baseball Inc) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization mental institution Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociative ...

. Seizing this opportunity, Jerry and Steven expose Gus' secret to the public, shaming Gus into resigning from the team. After a talk with Liz, Gus sincerely apologizes to Marcus just before the final game. Mel enlists ''Ultimate Home Remodel'' to build his stadium. On the day of the big game against Jerry's baseball team, Marcus forgives Gus in front of everyone at the beginning of the final game. Gus re-joins the team, announcing that Marcus is the Benchwarmers' new third-base coach. In the final game, Gus, Clark, and Richie let a team consisting of Nelson and other non-athletic children play, to give them a chance to play. In the final inning, the Benchwarmers are losing, but Jerry's team sees that the Benchwarmers are having fun playing the game anyway. Seeing how abusive and uncaring Jerry is and realizing the true spirit of the game, they decide to let Nelson score a run, saying that Jerry is "the loser". The Benchwarmers storm the field, celebrating the fact that they were not shut out. The entire Benchwarmers team, along with the kids from Jerry's team, Marcus, and even Carlos and Wayne, celebrate at

Pizza Hut Pizza Hut is an American multinational restaurant chain and international franchise founded in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas by Dan and Frank Carney. They serve their signature pan pizza and other dishes including pasta, breadsticks and desse ...

. Richie and Clark get girlfriends, Howie informs Wayne that he's not a big fan of the Moon, and Gus announces that he is going to become a father.

Cast

as Gus Matthews, a nerd and reformed childhood bully who works as a groundskeeper. *

as Richie Goodman, a nerd and video rental store worker. *

as Clark Reedy, a nerd and paperboy. *

as Mel Carmichael, a billionaire who funds the Benchwarmers. *

as Jerry McDowell, a mean-spirited little league coach that picked on Richie and Clark. *

as Liz Matthews, the wife of Gus. *

as Wayne, a little league coach who is one of Jerry's friends. *

Nick Swardson Nicholas Roger Swardson (born October 9, 1976) ...

as Howie Goodman, Richie's

agoraphobic Agoraphobia is a mental and behavioral disorder, specifically an anxiety disorder characterized by symptoms of anxiety in situations where the person perceives their environment to be unsafe with no easy way to escape. These situations can i ...

and heliophobic brother. *

Erinn Bartlett Erinn Anne Bartlett (born February 26, 1973) is an American actress who also competed in the Miss Teen USA pageant. Early life and education Bartlett was born in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. She graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in co ...

as Sarah, the Pizza and Salad Girl *

Amaury Nolasco Amaury Nolasco Garrido (born December 24, 1970) is a Puerto Rican actor and producer, best known for the role of Fernando Sucre on the Fox television series ''Prison Break'', and for his role in ''Transformers''. Early life Nolasco was born ...

as Carlos, a Dominican man whoM Wayne recruits to his little league team. * Bill Romanowski as Karl, a little league coach who is one of Jerry's friends. *

Reggie Jackson Reginald Martinez Jackson (born May 18, 1946) is an American former professional baseball right fielder who played 21 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Kansas City / Oakland Athletics, Baltimore Orioles, New York Yankees, and Cali ...

as himself * Sean Salisbury as Brad, a little league coach who picks on Richie and Clark. * Patrick Schwarzenegger as Jock Kid Game #3 * Terry Crews as Steven * Dan Patrick as O'Malley

Voices

* Doug Jones as Number 7, Mel's robot servant. *

James Earl Jones James Earl Jones (born January 17, 1931) is an American actor. He has been described as "one of America's most distinguished and versatile" actors for his performances in film, television, and theater, and "one of the greatest actors in America ...

as a

Darth Vader Darth Vader is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. The character is the central antagonist of the original trilogy and, as Anakin Skywalker, is one of the main protagonists in the prequel trilogy. ''Star Wars'' creator George ...

Gatekeeper System that is positioned outside of Mel's house. *

William Daniels William David Daniels (born March 31, 1927) is an American actor, who is best known for his television roles, notably as Mark Craig in the drama series '' St. Elsewhere'', for which he won two Primetime Emmy Awards; the voice of KITT in the te ...

as KITT (uncredited)

Production

''The Benchwarmers'' was shot at various locations in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, mostly in Agoura Hills, in Chumash Park and at a

. Other locations were

Chino Hills The Chino Hills are a mountain range on the border of Orange, Los Angeles, and San Bernardino counties, California, with a small portion in Riverside County. The Chino Hills State Park preserves open space and habitat in them. Geography The C ...

; Chino;

Culver City Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most ...

;

Glendale Glendale is the anglicised version of the Gaelic Gleann Dail, which means ''valley of fertile, low-lying arable land''. It may refer to: Places Australia *Glendale, New South Wales ** Stockland Glendale, a shopping centre * Glendale, Queensland, ...

; Watson Drug Store Chapman Avenue, Orange;

Simi Valley Simi Valley (; Chumash: ''Shimiyi'') is a city in the valley of the same name in the southeast region of Ventura County, California, United States. Simi Valley is from Downtown Los Angeles, making it part of the Greater Los Angeles Area. The ...

;

Westwood, Los Angeles Westwood is a commercial and residential neighborhood in the northern central portion of the Westside region of Los Angeles, California. It is the home of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Bordering the campus on the south ...

and on Mulholland Hwy, Malibu (Mel's house).

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

''The Benchwarmers'' scored 13% based on 71 reviews, with the site's consensus reading, "A gross-out comedy that is more sophomoric than funny, ''The Benchwarmers'' goes down swinging." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a score of 25 out of 100 based on 17 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data. Background Ed Mintz founded Ci ...

gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale. Manohla Dargis of

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

wrote: "The Benchwarmers is the sort of trash that Hollywood does really well" and noted it was only in theaters to raise awareness for the home-rental market. Dargis concludes by quoting Schneider, who called it "a master's thesis on the form of a quintessential Adam Sandler comedy." Owen Gleiberman of

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular ...

gave it a positive review: "This morphing of " The Bad News Bears" and a "

Three Stooges The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy team active from 1922 until 1970, best remembered for their 190 short subject films by Columbia Pictures. Their hallmark styles were physical farce and slapstick. Six Stooges appeare ...

" episode parades its dumbness with such zip that it almost passes for clever."

Box office

The film was a box office success. In its opening weekend, it grossed $19.6 million, ranking second at the North American box office behind '' Ice Age: The Meltdown''. The film finished with $59,843,754 domestically and $5,113,537 in other markets, totaling $64,957,291 worldwide. The film held the record for the highest opening weekend gross for a baseball genre film, until 2013 when it was surpassed by the

Jackie Robinson Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line ...

film " 42".

Award nominations

2006 Teen Choice Awards: * Choice Movie - Comedy * Choice Movie Actor – Comedy (Jon Heder) * Choice Movie Rumble (Jon Heder vs. Karl's Auto Body) * Choice Movie Chemistry (Rob Schneider, David Spade and Jon Heder)

2006 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards The 29th and final Stinkers Bad Movie Awards were released by the Hastings Bad Cinema Society in 2007 to honor the worst films the film industry had to offer in 2006. ''Zoom'' received the most nominations with ten. Dishonourable mentions are als ...

: * Worst On-Screen Hairstyle (David Spade) 2007 Razzie Awards: * Worst Actor (Rob Schneider) 2010 Razzie Awards: * Worst Actor of the Decade (Rob Schneider)

Home media

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on July 25, 2006.

Sequel

In July 2018, Revolution Studios and Universal 1440 Entertainment announced a direct-to-DVD sequel titled ''Benchwarmers 2: Breaking Balls''. The film was released on January 29, 2019, with

reprising his role as Mel Carmichael. The rest of the cast consists of Chris Klein,

Chelsey Reist Chelsey Marie Reist (born January 4, 1987) is a Canadian actress, television host, and dancer. From 2014 to 2018 she played Harper McIntyre in The CW's sci-fi television series '' The 100''. She starred as Rachel in the 2012 horror film ''No Tell ...

Lochlyn Munro Lochlyn Munro (born February 12, 1966) is a Canadian actor. His most notable film roles include ''A Night at the Roxbury'' (1998), ''Scary Movie'' (2000), ''Freddy vs. Jason'' (2003), ''White Chicks'' (2004), '' The Predator'' (2018) and ''Cosm ...

, and Garfield Wilson.

References

External links

* *
David Spade interview for ''The Benchwarmers''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benchwarmers, The 2006 films 2006 comedy films 2000s sports comedy films American sports comedy films 2000s English-language films American baseball films American buddy films Columbia Pictures films Films produced by Adam Sandler Films produced by Jack Giarraputo Films directed by Dennis Dugan Films with screenplays by Allen Covert Films with screenplays by Nick Swardson Happy Madison Productions films Revolution Studios films 2000s American films