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Mathew Scott

The Benchwarmers

Starring: Rob Schneider, David Spade, Jon Heder,

Jon Lovitz

Director: Dennis Dugan

The film: Intentionally low-brow, crass and  border-line offensive, The Benchwarmers owes its existence to a long line  of nerd films. Animal House (1978)  set the ball rolling,  and Revenge of the Nerds  (1984) took the genre to its extreme. And those two, really, have never been bettered.

The Benchwarmers  takes  its idea from The Bad News Bears (1976), but swaps the kids for adults - and throws in a few fart and nose-picking jokes. There are a few hearty chuckles along the way, but not many. And that's a surprise considering the people involved.

Rob Schneider, David Spade, Jon Heder (far right with Spade) and Jon Lovitz  play a bunch of ageing losers who  take on all the local kids' baseball teams in an attempt to grab some glory that was never theirs.   Only Lovitz comes through the exercise smiling - his turn as the epitome of the nerd-made-good (complete with Batmobile and a robot servant) is the film's sole saving grace.

As for the rest, it says a lot that Schneider ends up playing the straight man, while  Heder simply lifts his role from Napoleon Dynamite, but shaved of any enthusiasm.

Director Dennis Dugan survived Happy Gilmore (its star Adam Sandler is involved  here as producer) and,  much like that film, The Benchwarmers has  some good ideas, but doesn't   carry things through for  the full 90-odd minutes.

Once the characters  are established, they  don't  go anywhere.  Baseball  player Reggie Jackson gets a pointless cameo,  Spade should  hang his cynical, snide  side out to dry - he   looks bored for the most  part -  and you get the  feeling Schneider is hanging around for one  final box-office smash. It won't be The Benchwarmers.

The extras: Baseball fans get a bit more of Jackson, with a camera trailing him behind  the scenes, while everyone gets together to discuss 'America's pastime'.

There's a 'Howie's Greatest Moments' -  but you'd have to think the character was funny  to care - and the two commentaries feature the director, and then Spader and Heder.

Funny in parts - unintentionally so in others - is the Nerds vs Bullies piece. The cast talk about their own experiences (and they're mostly a nerdy bunch).  Then up steps ex-NFL player  Bill Romanowski to say with a straight face  that he dislikes bullies. This from a man whose  reputation was  based on intimidation - and who once finished  the career of a teammate  with a training session dust-up. It's about the funniest moment of the package.

The verdict: Sit this one out.



The Benchwarmers