"It's never too late to take a stand..."
The Benchwarmers is a 2006 Happy Madison Productions film directed by Dennis Dugan about Clark Reedy (Jon Heder) and Richie Goodman (David Spade), a pair of grown nerds, and their far less nerdy and older friend, Gus Matthews (Rob Schneider). Gus' wife Liz (Molly Sims) is desperate to get pregnant while Gus is a bit reluctant. They save a child from bullies while Gus was teaching the others baseball, and later defeat them in the same game. The child that they helped's father, a billionaire named Mel Carmichael (Jon Lovitz), returns and proposes them to play in a tournament with some of the nastier children's teams to raise awareness of bullying and its consequences, as none of them were allowed to play sports as children. However, rival little coach and former childhood bully Jerry McDowell (Craig Kilborn) is determined to stop the Benchwarmers from winning the prized stadium at all costs.
A direct-to-DVD sequel Benchwarmers 2: Breaking Balls was released in January 2019 (where only Jon Lovitz reprised his role).
The film provides examples of:
- The Ace: Gus is awesome at pretty much every aspect of baseball, and essentially carries the guys through their games.
- As Himself: Reggie Jackson appears to help train Clark and Richie, claiming to be a childhood friend of Mel.
- The Atoner: Gus, once it becomes known that he bullied a child into a mental institution.
- Basement Dweller: Richie's brother Howie is afraid of the sun, but instead of the basement he hides in the closet and never leaves the house. Richie only manages to get Howie to come out to play baseball by telling him that there's a serial killer on the loose who only kills people named Howie in his neighborhood.
- Marcus, the kid Gus bullied as a child, became this as an adult.
- Big Brother Instinct: Richie does look out for his brother Howie. He never yells at him about his fear of the sun and will try to help him face his fears at certain moments like picking up cookies from the girl scouts or coming to the game so he can get out of the house once in a while. He does also look out for him on the ball field, telling someone to get his sword (that he was using for a bat) and help him out and does have a shocked and concerned reaction when Howie gets hit in the shoulder with the baseball.
- Broken Pedestal: Gus for everyone who admired him once his history as a bully comes to light. Later rebuilt thanks to a testimony and forgiveness from Marcus, his old victim.
- Character Development: Gus was the meanest bully in Brookdale when he was a kid. He beat up a kid named Marcus so bad that he ended up in a mental institution and struggled to get out of his bad Manchild funk for many years. This seemed to have been the moment Gus realized the severity of his actions and as an adult has become a much more reasonable Nice Guy. Throughout the film, he takes another step in character development when he goes from being afraid of returning to his hometown because of his actions to taking responsibility for them.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Clark
- Cool Car: Mel drives KITT!
- The Cameo/Creator Cameo: As usual with Happy Madison films, this features cameos from several of Adam Sandler's collaborators.
- Director Dennis Dugan appears as Coach Bellows at the Brookdale game. He even shakes hands and has a brief conversation with Gus.Coach Bellows: Gus Matthews. That name sounds familiar. Are you from around here?
Gus: Uh...no. I grew up on the North Pole. Not even close to here.- Dennis's father Charles also appears as Marty, Richie's senile boss at the video store.
- The man in the speedo is portrayed by John Farley, brother of the late Chris Farley.
- Director Dennis Dugan appears as Coach Bellows at the Brookdale game. He even shakes hands and has a brief conversation with Gus.
- Curb-Stomp Cushion: The Benchwarmers lose badly to Jerry's team in the final game. However, they're such good sports about it and having fun just playing, that Jerry's team let Nelson score a home run so that the Benchwarmers don't get shut out.
- Do-Anything Robot: Number 7.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Jerry is a rather cruel coach to the children on his team, so much so that they turn on him and purposefully let the other team score in the final game. And then gave him an atomic wedgie.
- Duct Tape for Everything: How they finally get Clark to hold on to the bat.
- Fake-Hair Drama: Steven was teased about his prematurely receding hairline as a child, causing him to wear a totally unrealistic hair piece.
- Fiction 500: Mel keeps a billion dollars in cash on his person, and funds an entire state-of-the-art baseball pitch with added playgrounds and a pool, hiring enough workers to build it in a single day.
- Flat Character: The blonde female love interests to the main guys have no personality. The closest we get is Gus’ wife Liz and even then her character doesn't go that far beyond wanting to start a family and encouraging Gus to apologize to Marcus. Richie's love interest doesn't even have a name and only characteristic is she likes his awkward charm. Clark's first big kiss is with a woman who really just shows up out of nowhere at the end of the film.
- Freudian Excuse: Marcus use to love baseball as a kid but he was bullied and beaten by Gus so bad that not only did he lose his confidence in playing the game but he ended up in a mental institution and struggled to move past from his Manchild mental state (and his mothers basement). Thankfully he does get a lot better by the end of the film.
- Good Parents: This seems to be the case with Mel. He doesn't have much one-on-one screen time with his son Nelson but from what we do see of them, they get along very well. Mel also sets up this whole tournament just so he can help his son and his friends get the respect from others they deserve.
- Heel–Face Turn: Jerry's team in the final game, as well as Gus when he was growing up.
- Hollywood Intellectual Disability: Clark Reedy always wears a bike helmet, acts a little out there and is explicitly called "a retard" by one of the film's bullies. Given how odd the rest of the film gets, it's ambiguous if he's actually mentally disabled or not.
- Hot Potato: Former baseballer Reggie Jackson trains Gus, Richie and Clark. One of his drills (for catching and quick releasing) is a literal hot potato—from the oven! Reggie tosses it to Gus, who quickly passes it to Richie. Richie quickly throws the potato to Clark—who still holds on, burning his hand. Eventually, Clark flings the smoldering spud out the window, where it hits Number 7 (while mowing the lawn), causing it to accidentally shave the fur off side of a sleeping dog.
- Insult Backfire: Jerry's "derogatory" nickname to Gus causes Gus to mock Jerry, and eventually becomes the name of the Benchwarmers' tour bus.
- Jerk Jock: Jerry, and Gus when he was a child.
- Mailbox Baseball: In order to train the Benchwarmers to become better players, Reggie Jackson has them drive around the neighborhood smashing mailboxes with baseball bats.
- Manchild: Clark, Howie, and Marcus.
- Missing Mom: It's never stated if Mel is a widower or a divorcee.
- Nerdy Bully: Gus is portrayed as a nerd, and is later revealed to have verbally bullied a vertically-challenged classmate of his while in grade school. He also made fun of another classmate's prematurely receding hairline.
- Nice Guy: While Gus may have been the complete opposite as a kid, he has become a far more reasonable and mature nice guy in his adult years. The other protagonists like Clark, Ritchie, Mel, Howie, and Nelson also all fit this trope.
- Reformed Bully: Gus was a bully as a kid who cleaned his act when he grew up and actively regrets his actions. Near the end of the film he visits his former victim to make amends.
- Running Gag: Clark accidentally throwing the bat.
- Shout-Out: The most obvious ones being KITT from Knight Rider, a Darth Vader gatekeeper system, and various other models, including Yoda and R2-D2, all owned by Mel himself. Hell, there's a ton of Star Wars and other shout-outs in this movie.
- Uncle Pennybags: Mel.
- You Are Number Six: Number 7.