HERE COMES THE BOOM

HERE COMES THE BOOM

GRADE: C –

Reviewed by Paul Gibbs

In my recent review of the Clint Eastwood vehicle Trouble With The Curve,  I stated that the reason for using storytelling formulas is that they work. I should have specified that I doesn’t mean you can just drag one out and expect it to automatically work without any effort. The Kevin James vehicle Here Comes The Boom is a mix of two of  the most reliable  and overused formulas out there: the inspirational teacher movie, and the boxing movie (yes, it’s UFC mixed martial arts, but as far as conventions go, it’s a boxing movie).

            James stars as Scott Voss, a high school (or it might have been a middle school, I  couldn’t quite tell and the movie is nonspecific) biology teacher who was once committed and dedicated, but is now just going through the motions. But Scott sees in music teacher Marty Streb (Henry Winkler) the fire he use to have. Too bad Marty is about to be let go as the music department is being eliminated because of budget cuts, and just when Marty has confided that his 40-year old wife is pregnant. So, naturally , the apathetic guy who a mere two scenes ago told his students that school doesn’t matter steps up and offers to raise the $48,000 needed to keep Marty and music at the school. This eventually leads Scott to take up mixed martial arts fighting, figuring that, while he’ll probably always lose, he’ll stil make $10,000 per fight, and this is a movie so as long as he wears a Band Aid over his left eye after every fight he won’t have any lasting injuries. Of course Scott starts to win. Of course he becomes an inspiring teacher again.  Of course he wins the love of the hot school nurse (Salma Hayek). While this is obviously about as formulaic as a movie can get, it should make an engaging, innocuous bit of fluff, especially when played for laughs. But, as much as I wanted to  laugh, I didn’t. Not even small chuckles came forth.

            Without the laughs, it becomes very difficult to overlook the plot holes, Marty is  supposed to be such an inspiring teacher that the kids need him there. But we only see about one minute of what appears to okay teaching, and for the rest of the film Marty is portrayed as such an ineffectual oaf that it’s difficult to think of him as an inspiration to anyone.  Scott’s character arc is haphazard. And the romantic subplot is half-hearted at best. Director Frank Coraci dashes off most of the film in a very perfunctory fashion, then seems to have watched Raging Bull or Cinderella Man before shooting the climactic fight because he suddenly tries to get creative.  The screenplay, by James and Allan Loeb, could have been written by a computer program.

            The cast, particularly James and Winkler, are likable, and they make the film just barely engaging enough to watch. And, to be fair, most of the audience seemed to enjoy the film a lot more than I did.

Here Comes The Boom is rated PG for mild vulgarity and profanity.