A trio of guys try and make up for missed opportunities in childhood by forming a three-player baseball team to compete against standard little league squads.
Schneider winds up playing straight man to Spade, who once again relies on his snarky coward shtick, and Heder, who comes across like someone doing a bad imitation of ... well, Heder himself in Napoleon Dynamite.
– Joe Leydon,
Variety,
10 Apr 2006
fresh:
The three losers play a series of Little League teams, snatching victory from the jaws of slapstick humiliation.
– Owen Gleiberman,
Entertainment Weekly,
12 Apr 2006
rotten:
Like pretty much everything else bearing Happy Madison's name, The Benchwarmers kind of sucks.
– Nathan Rabin,
AV Club,
13 Apr 2006
rotten:
It's hard to buy the movie as an underdog success story, since even the actors barely seem to exert themselves.
– Ben Kenigsberg,
L.A. Weekly,
13 Apr 2006
rotten:
Just when the baseball slapstick starts wearing thin, a final-reel gush of truly cynical sentiment on behalf of the physically challenged sends the ordeal-factor off the scale.