Reviewed - The Benchwarmers: THERE are, I would speculate, herpetologists whose lives are taken up with comparing the gestation periods of different species of South American toad. When set beside the business of rating the films of Rob Schneider, this seems a varied and worthwhile enterprise.

To say that The Benchwarmers, in which the alleged comic coaches a baseball team comprised of dweebs and nerds, stands as one of Rob's less terrible films is - drifting from zoology into particle physics - rather like pointing out that a muon is heavier than a positron.

Direct a powerful electron humourscope at both Benchwarmers and, say, Deuce Bigalow and you will, it is true, detect slightly more comic radiation coming off the former. Jon Lovitz is reasonably diverting as the team's benefactor. Jon Heder, star of Napoleon Dynamite, repeats his dopey shtick amusingly.

But such minor pleasures do little to dispel the misery induced by the star's unshakable ubiquity. You'll still get more laughs watching the clothes rotate in your washing machine.