Ready for some typical Hollywood comedy?
Yeah, that’s about what you can expect from this movie, but it’s not bad. Having an MMA theme definitely kept me interested so that’s a plus 🙂 This movie, ‘Here comes the Boom’, is a comedy starring Kevin James and a few names from the MMA world – Bas Rutten, Joe Rogan and others.
Kevin James plays Scott, a former High School Wrestler and current High School Teacher with some impressive awards behind him. Today though, he’s a lazy and very unmotivated teacher who is coasting through occasionally getting into trouble with his boss.
Everything changes when the school has to undergo budget cuts, and one of his friends and most beloved teachers is in risk of losing his job – right after discovering he has a baby on the way. So Scott volunteers to raise the money to save the Fonz Marty from unemployment – but he’s not sure how.
Eventually starts teaching after hours and meets an MMA instructor played by Bas Rutten. After learning that you can get paid a hefty amount of money just to lose a fight, Scott decides to train in MMA and use his ‘loss money’ to raise the funds for Marty’s job.
MMA mixed with Decent Comedy (spoilers)
This film plays out just as you would expect any comedy featuring a guy like Kevin James – it’s pretty funny at times but ultimately the story gets more serious and we all have a wonderful group hug at the end at how wonderful things are…
…oh and of course our main man get’s the attractive girl he’s been chasing (played by Salma Hayek).
There’s really nothing special about the unfolding of events in this film and it’s more the smaller moments that make it entertaining – like watching Scott’s first fight as he enters wearing some fake plastic armour, or his first win when he vomit’s all over his opponent.
Unfortunately, being a Hollywood movie, things wouldn’t be ‘good enough’ without some kind of terribly written miracle like making a fight in the UFC, getting his ass kicked but delivering a magically flukey knock-out and winning the match. I was pretty disappointed but not surprised.
I thought perhaps even losing the fight would have made for a terrific ending teaching some awesome life / martial arts lesson would have given this movie more substance – with some other miracle causing them to raise the money they needed. A cheesy “we’re so touched by your actions & we managed to find the money somewhere” would have been better – but hey, it is Hollywood.
The MMA themes and the performances win the show though and make it watchable.
Kevin James is as funny as usual and Bas Rutten isn’t far off! Always the entertaining host, Bas carries his persona into the movie flawlessly and shows a hint of potential in the movie world – but I think he’d still be reasonably typecast in MMA films – but that’s cool 🙂
The MMA culture and of course the fights have always been interesting to me though, so I may like this film more than others..
The Action?
Not an action film, but it has some nice enough MMA style fights with real UFC fighters.
What’s funny is watching Kevin James fight hopelessly against these guys but slowly develop a game – even if it’s an ordinary one. He uses his rush tactics against the MMA fighters who use a style very close to the real thing with maybe a hint of movie magic added to it with fancy superman punches and what not being thrown a little more than usual.
Overall, the action isn’t a reason to watch the film but it does help add entertainment value.
Overall?
A fun movie and one of the more entertaining Hollywood comedies to me simply because of the Martial Arts themes. If you’re not a Martial Arts enthusiast you may not gain the same value but it’s still pretty funny. I’d check it out!
On Blu Ray –
Region A (US & Canada)
Here Comes the Boom
Region B (UK, Australia, New Zealand, Europe etc)
Here Comes the Boom
On DVD –
Region 1 (US & Canada)
Here Comes the Boom 
Region 2 (UK, Europe, etc)
Here Comes the Boom
Region 4 (Australia, New Zealand, etc)
Here Comes the Boom
