The Benchwarmers and fifty cent snacks!

Yesterday, I took full advantage of my new job and its perks and went to the theatre to watch a movie. Nothing playing was anything I would've wanted to pay $6 for, but since I wasn't paying, I decided I'd just pick one. Plus I got popcorn and a soda for fifty cents each!

And The Benchwarmers, it was. In case the synopsis slipped your mind, the film is about "a trio of guys [who] try and make up for missed opportunities in childhood by forming a three-player baseball team to compete against standard little league squads" courtesy of imdb.

It stars Rob Schneider, David Spade, Jon Heder and Jon Lovitz, with smaller roles going to Nick Swardson, Tim Meadows, Craig Kilborn and Molly Sims and even a cameo by Reggie Jackson.

I'd give it a 2.5 out of 5 stars, with the .5 added just because this is the first film in which Rob Schneider and Jon Lovitz both were likable characters and didn't ruin the film for me. David Spade was the funniest of the three, in my opinion. And Jon Heder shouldn't have taken that role. As a new actor, he's already starting to be typecast as "that idiot". He did it perfectly in Napoleon Dynamite, and was pushing it as the stoned clairvoyant in Just Like Heaven, but in this one, he was just a mess.

Plus there was the horrible role of Howie, played by Nick Swardson, who is labeled "agoraphobic", but won't go outside because he's actually terrified of the sun. It was just for cheap laughs, but upset me because the high school-aged girls in front of me thought it was hilarious. Needless to say, I didn't. It pisses me off when Hollywood stigmatizes mental illness, especially in movies aimed at the younger crowds, just for a laugh.