Thursday, May 26, 2022
flickfeast
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Festivals
  • FrightFeast
  • Spotlight
  • Contribute
  • Submissions
    • Advertise on Flickfeast
    • Submit a Film
No Result
View All Result
flickfeast
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Festivals
  • FrightFeast
  • Spotlight
  • Contribute
  • Submissions
    • Advertise on Flickfeast
    • Submit a Film
No Result
View All Result
FLICKFEAST
No Result
View All Result
Home Reviews HE Reviews

Here Comes the Boom (2012)

Rob Keeling by Rob Keeling
March 18, 2013
in HE Reviews
14
SHARES
1.4k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Chances are that for many of us, the prospect of a Kevin James star vehicle produced by Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Production Company isn’t exactly going to set our pulses racing. After all, it really is saying something when Paul Blart: Mall Cop is the highlight on your cinematic CV. Here Comes The Boom however is by no means anything to fear and on the broad spectrum of modern day American comedies, it sits pretty solidly in the ‘just slightly below average’ category.

James is likeable in the lead role, the problem being that he is also charming and inspirational and heroic and brave and tough and………..basically, he’s the greatest human being alive. Jones plays Scott Voss, a former collegiate wrestler turned biology teacher who over the course of this film not only becomes a better person, but also saves the day, inspires the younger generation and woos the inexplicably hot nurse (Salma Hayek). It’s like a selection pack of movie clichés all rolled into one choice nugget. At the film’s outset, Voss is a jaded and seemingly out-of-shape teacher who shows no enthusiasm whatsoever for his work.  That all changes however when his friend and school music teacher Marty (Henry Winkler) is told his job is in jeopardy mere moments after he has confided in Voss that he and his wide are expecting a baby. Voss resolves to raise the $48,000 necessary to save his job and protect the music department from savage cuts.

You might also like

Death on the Nile (2022) – Blu-ray Review

The Mitchells Vs The Machines (2021)- Blu-ray Review

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)- 4K Blu-ray Review

After being introduced to Mixed Martial Arts fighting by a friend, Voss finds out there’s money to be made in losing cage fights and thus sets about earning cash by getting pummelled. He gradually begins to get better and better however and after a series of good fights, he is cherry-picked by the big guns at UFC to fight one of their main attractions. I’m not entirely convinced it’s as easy to get a gig in the UFC as this film suggests, but we’ll let that slide for now. This fight is the big pay day which can fully save Marty’s job, but can Voss overcome the odds and defeat the rock solid highly-trained fighter? I think we all know the answer to that.

There’s a number of pressing faults with this movie, perhaps the most important one being that it elevates Scott Voss to almost mythical levels of brilliance. I’m not saying a movie can’t have a hero at the centre, but if you are going to have one completely without faults and who saves the day essentially single-handedly, you’re really dialling the cheese factor all the way up to 11. I think I’ve drilled this point home enough now though so we’ll move on to fault number two, which is that this movie packs in far too many sub-plots for its own good. Thrown into the narrative melting plot we have a class of immigrants trying to become American citizens, a talented student whose father doesn’t want her perusing a music career, the importance of music in society, a surprise pregnancy and an unhappy marriage. When added in on top of the cage-fighting and the Salma Hayek wooing at the film’s centre, it adds up to a bit of a jumbled mess. The film’s focus seems to be extremely scattershot and there appears to be a fair bit of narrative padding involved in order to flesh out the fairly short and sweet ‘teacher fights for his students’ concept.

There are a couple of broader themes also hinted at by Here Comes the Boom, namely the stinging impact of the failing economy and the importance that must be placed on educating our children, but these too are skipped over fairly readily. They are briefly mentioned and then, much like the mass of subplots, they are pushed into the background in order to make room for another few minutes of Kevin James getting beaten up.

For all its faults though, Here Comes the Boom has the best of intentions. Saving jobs and educating the young is always a good thing, and the teacher going that extra yard is a well-worn TV staple which translates fairly well to the big screen providing you can handle the cheese. It’s formulaic, overly schmaltzy to the point of distraction and not really sufficiently funny given its billing as a comedy, but it’s inoffensive and mildly entertaining enough to avoid too much castigation. To put it another way, despite an abundance of plot threads, there’s so little about Here Comes the Boom that its kind of hard to object to it too strongly.

Here Comes the Boom is out on DVD and Blu-ray 18th March 2013.

Director: Frank Coraci
Stars: Kevin James, Salma Hayek, Henry Winkler
Runtime: 105 min
Country: USA

Film Rating: ★★½☆☆

Tags: actioncage fightingcomedyfrank coracihenry winklerHere Comes the BoomKevin JamesMMASalma Hayekteachersufc
Rob Keeling

Rob Keeling

Related Posts

Death on the Nile (2022) - Blu-ray Review
HE Reviews

Death on the Nile (2022) – Blu-ray Review

by Jed Wagman
April 11, 2022
The Mitchells Vs The Machines (2021)- Blu-ray Review
HE Reviews

The Mitchells Vs The Machines (2021)- Blu-ray Review

by Jed Wagman
December 13, 2021
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)- 4K Blu-ray Review
Film Review

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)- 4K Blu-ray Review

by Jed Wagman
December 6, 2021
Superman & Lois
HE Reviews

‘Superman and Lois’ (2021) Series Review

by Jenna Scott
December 2, 2021
Koko-Di Koko-Da (2019) – Film Review
HE Reviews

Koko-Di Koko-Da (2019) – Film Review

by Dallas King
September 9, 2020

Recommended

Despicable Me 2 Becomes UK box office highest grossing film of 2013

August 21, 2013
jack ryan amazon prime john krasinski

Flickfeast and Chill: Catching Up With…Jack Ryan

August 30, 2018

Don't miss it

Film Review

Firestarter (2022) – Film Review

May 24, 2022
Top Gun: Maverick (2022) – Film Review
Film Review

Top Gun: Maverick (2022) – Film Review

May 23, 2022
Benediction (2021)
Film Review

Benediction (2021) — Film Review

May 19, 2022
Top 100 Greatest Movies Films
Spotlight

100 Greatest Movies (and 50 Honorable Mentions)

May 24, 2022
The Innocents (2021) – Film Review
Film Review

The Innocents (2021) – Film Review

May 17, 2022
Father Stu (2022) – Film Review
Film Review

Father Stu (2022) – Film Review

May 12, 2022
flickfeast

Whetting your appetite for cinema with the best film reviews and features since 2009

© Copyright - flickfeast. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Festivals
  • FrightFeast
  • Spotlight
  • Contribute

© Copyright - flickfeast. All Rights Reserved.

Posting....