This is the deal: I own around 350 movies on DVD and Blu-ray. Through June 10, 2015, I will be watching and writing about them all, in the order they are arranged on my shelf (i.e., alphabetically, with certain exceptions). No movie will be left unwatched . I welcome your comments, your words of encouragement and your declarations of my insanity.
Movie #27: The Benchwarmers
Ever since I started this project, my husband has been cracking himself up over the reality that I would eventually come to this stupid movie of his, and I would be forced to watch it. Well, the joke’s on him. The Benchwarmers is actually not that bad.
I’m not sure if it’s the surreal feeling of seeing Rob Schneider play it straight (i.e., not some lunatic gross weirdo character), my weird affinity for David Spade and Jon Lovitz, or the sheer joy I feel when Craig Kilborn gets what’s coming to him, but this movie made me laugh quite a bit. It’s goofy, yes. And stupid, yes. And it’s by Adam Sandler’s production company, Happy Madison, so it’s teeming with gross and inappropriate jokes. But it’s funny. And it’s got heart — not unlike something akin to The Bad News Bears.
I’m not sure what at the time would make this so forgettable or make so many assume outright that it was terrible. It couldn’t have been marketed well, I’m guessing, though I doubt that was the only cause. Maybe the world was just burned out on Adam Sandler movies — the mere sight of Rob Schneider (especially considering his previous roles) is enough to make me cringe on most occasions, and I’m sure that’s true for lots of people. Not only that, but David Spade in weird hair is a hard sell on any day, and Jon Heder’s breakout film Napoleon Dynamite was kind of polarizing in that some people really got it and loved it, and everybody else just hated it; there wasn’t a middle ground. (He still seems to have that effect, truth be told.)
I was definitely one of the people who looked at the trailers and posters for this movie and thought, “Ugh.” I wanted nothing to do with it, even after it sat on my shelf for the past eight years. However, I’ve been wrong before and, more importantly, I’m willing to admit it when it happens. This isn’t a movie I’m going to watch over and over again, and it isn’t something I’m going to hold up as an example of how movies should be made or revere in my heart as a treasured favorite, but it made me laugh — out loud, several times — and that’s certainly worth something.
Viable Option 