MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

GazerRise Fantastic!

Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Humbersi The first must-see film of the year.

jbrumundsmith If you want a funny and entertaining movies with some good characters and good moments, you could certainly do a lot worse. This is a classic rags-to-riches sports movie that follows a fairly common formula of an underdog rising up to take on a big challenge. However, unlike many other sports movies, we are not meant to like the main character from the beginning. Kevin James' character is shown right away as an example of everything that is wrong with being an uncaring educator. He then realizes the err of his ways and tries to find redemption, and that is when the story takes off.The premise of him fighting to raise money for a noble cause is great. But you really need to suspend reality for the story to make any sense at all. First of all, schools do not accept donations for pay for a single teacher's salary. And if they did, that means Kevin James needs to keep donating his fighting profits for the rest of Henry Winkler's career to really make a different. And it is not just Winkler's job that is about to be axed, it is the entire music program. So just raising money for one man's job will be a drop in the bucket.Another ridiculous part of the movie is when Joe Rogan (playing himself) has the whole band flown out to play a one-minute song for the match. Hey Joe, this is a financially strapped school about to lose its music program. If you want to make a difference, don't fly out every member for a tiny performance. Donate that money to the school! Maybe I am a cynic, but that really bothered me.While those parts of the movie were ridiculous, the overall experience really is quite good. Obviously your expectations coming into this movie would be to just enjoy yourself and have some laughs for 90 minutes. In that respect, this movie delivers.

alindsay-al I like a good sports film so I thought I would watch this film with low expectations and I ended up really enjoying this film. The premise of this film Sees a biology teacher attempt to train in MMA so he can save the music department and the teachers job. Kevin James is very hit and miss with mostly misses but this is the best I have ever seen him. He is really funny in his film and he adds lots of depth to his character that makes you root to him and care about him succeeding to help save this guy's job. You see him progress throughout the film and really get some pride out of possibly having a chance to win these fights. Henry Winkler plays the music teacher in the film and he is great, he is just such a likable guy and you end up liking him so much. You truly understand why James is going through these fights to save this guy's job. I loved Niko who is James trainer and he was hilarious in this film and was just a great character that has great chemistry with james. I also really liked how all the kids in his class become more interested in him and school as the film develops. Salma hayek plays his love interest in this film and she doesn't really add allot to the film but is competent in the role. The story is really uplifting as you see this guy doing everything he can to help somebody else an try and make his school a better place. It's a really motivating movie and you really do care about the journey the characters go through. But I will admit that this film is incredibly predictable and a bit cliché as you can probably guess the ending of this film. The script has some really good dialogue in this film both dramatic and humour that really helped build the characters and really make me laugh and care. The style of the UFC fights are really good an you totally buy James starting to get better at the fights as the film progresses. But there is some pointless things in the movie to pad it out and also some toilet humour that just doesn't work. Overall though I really enjoyed this film and I think it is definitely worth a watch.

ggallagher Kevin James is not one my favorite actors, and some of his other movie roles in the last few years have been corny, to say the least. However, I was pleasantly surprised by this film all the same. Despite some opportunities for over the top physical humor, he played it as realistically as possible with some truly funny moments and a Rocky-like ending. Lots of clichés here but in the main, a funny take on the age old underdog theme. Salma Hayek is passable as the female love interest and Henry Winkler does a good job of delivering the goofy one liners he seems to be doing in more and more film roles as he ages and leaves his Fonzy image far behind. Definitely worth a look.

dee.reid It's been a long time since I last reviewed a new(-ish) movie for the lovely crowds of IMDb. Earlier today, I got the chance to watch the 2012 martial arts/sports comedy "Here Comes the Boom," directed by Adam Sandler's Happy Madison regular Frank Coraci ("The Wedding Singer," "The Waterboy," "Zookeeper") and starring the always-affable Kevin James.James is one of the most watchable and likable personalities working in big movies these days. Perhaps, that's why his starring character in "Here Comes the Boom" works so well. The genial, portly James plays 42-year-old, apathetic Boston-area high school biology teacher Scott Voss, who's just screaming for a big "Rocky"-style inspirational makeover.Voss's inspirational calling comes in the form of looming budget cuts that threatens his school's extracurricular activities, which includes best-pal and dedicated music teacher Marty Streb (Henry Winkler) being laid off and his band program getting axed - unless someone somehow magically comes up with the $48,000 needed to save everything. Bake sales and car washes won't cut it, so Voss does the unthinkable and signs up for a series of amateur mixed martial arts (MMA) bouts, where even the loser can net up to $10,000 - which is more than what most of today's educators make in a month - and the winner can make off with a $50,000 grand prize.But because Voss is 42 and out-of-shape (though he was a division-one wrestler in college) and COMPLETELY out of his element, no one takes his scheme seriously, though he does find unlikely support in Dutch immigrant and MMA trainer Niko (retired Dutch-American UFC champ Bas Rutten), Mark DellaGrotte (playing himself), Marty, and lovely school nurse Bella Flores (the always-lovely Salma Hayek). And somewhere in there, Voss also manages to find what it takes to live again and inspire his students and everyone else at his school."Here Comes the Boom" is pretty by-the-numbers formulaic. But Kevin James keeps everything above water with his cool and personable Everyman portrayal of the once-apathetic Scott Voss. Salma Hayek isn't really given all that much to do, but - damn it - does she light up every scene that she graces. One of the great charms of "Here Comes the Boom" is watching Bas Rutten deliver (what I've seen from him) his best acting portrayal, since it's well-known that most athletes are pretty poor screen performers - the guy energizes every sequence he's in; but watching Rutten here, you get to asking yourself why he hasn't been in more movies before this one."Here Comes the Boom" isn't an Oscar-winner by a long shot, but the movie works because of two key players - Kevin James and Bas Rutten. It's not a knock-out winner, but it does land a few solid punches to the gut that will elicit a few painful, well-deserved laughs.8/10