The Hammer

source: The Hammer

Give it a shot! It's a really good movie. Nice story line and good pacing. Sports fans will like it as well.

After watching quite a few newer comedy movies from the older 1990s crowd (Grandma's Boy, Balls of Fury, most anything recent by Sandler) and all of those really crappy movies made on the coattails of the 40 Year Old Virgin, I was glad to find a comedy movie that was actually funny and not just stupid. This movie has aptly been described as being a "tweener" (ie. not a comedy or drama), and that categorisation really does fit. It's got plenty of comedic moments, and it's fairly light-hearted, but it's not a barrel of laughs and no one dies in it, so it's sort of in the middle. Still, it's a good movie. Sure, there are probably better movies out there than this, but when compared to all of the crap that's been produced by Hollywood since the 1990s (both comedy and otherwise), it's nice to see that at least some good movies can get made without having to go to England to film them and wait a few years for it to be released in America.

The Hammer succeeds at the one thing at which every comedy should want to succeed. It's really darn funny. It doesn't succeed at much else, but complaining about that is a bit like complaining about a bottle opener not being able to check the air pressure in a tire. The movie opens with Jerry Ferro (Adam Carolla) turning 40 years old. Jerry is one of those people whose life has sort of come to a dead end and he doesn't much care. He's a carpenter by trade, but he's not much more than a day laborer on other people's construction jobs. He teaches boxing classes down at the local health club but even though he's good at it, Jerry doesn't treat that like anything but a diversion. He's got a girlfriend who doesn't like him. His best friend is a somewhat simple minded Nicaraguan named Ozzie (Oswaldo Castillo). His truck is a piece of crap. He's a funny smartass, but sarcasm starts to get a little pathetic when it's coming from a middle-aged failure. When Jerry gets Ozzie and himself fired from their latest job, he heads down to the health club to work out his frustration in the boxing ring. While there, he gets asked to spar with a pro boxer and ends up knocking him down for the first time in the boxer's career. It turns out 21 years ago, Jerry was a pretty good amateur boxer…but he just threw away any potential he had being a stupid kid. After seeing Jerry in the ring, however, an old trainer invites to try out for the Olympic team. What happens next is pretty much exactly the clichéd sports movie you'd expect to happen, where Jerry has to struggle against internal and external obstacles to seize their second chance for glory. There's the arrogant boxer who first dislikes Jerry but then they become friends just in time to have to fight one another. There's the young boxer Jerry takes under his wing. Jerry starts romancing a pretty lawyer named Lindsay (Heather Juergensen) from one of his boxing classes, but then she seemingly abandons him just before his big fight. If you've ever seen any sports movie about an underdog, you've already seen everything in The Hammer. That doesn't mean this is a bad movie, though. That's because as predictable and pedestrian as the story may be, this thing is still darn funny. Carolla can't act a lick, but he's hilarious. He makes fun of just about everything under the sun with the high point being an extended rant about the La Brea tar pits of all things, with a bit of home improvement trash talk not being far behind. And while the humor is often politically incorrect, it's not all that profane or even crude. This is about as wholesome and family friendly an R-rated comedy as you'll ever be able to find. Heather Juergensen also does a nice job in the role of "underdog's girlfriend". It's not exactly a showy performance, but consider what she has to work with. Adam Carolla isn't at all attractive and, and I mentioned before, he can't act worth a lick. Yet, Juergensen makes you believe that Lindsay could fall in love with this guy just because he's so funny and sweet. When The Hammer veers away from humor and tries to be dramatic or heartfelt, none of that stuff works at all. Fortunately, there are not that many of those moments in between Carolla's deadpan comments. This movie is genuinely funny and that's not a small accomplishment. There's a lot of unfunny comedies out there that can waste your time. The Hammer isn't one of them.

This is a 'small' film but done very well. The low budget results in real sets and realistic looking cinematography but that doesn't mean done poorly. Just the opposite in fact. The look and sound of the film is up to any standard. The story itself is, again, minor and just plain pleasant. Each protagonist character has a well defined arc which makes perfect sense given the movie's stream. The plot is simply a quest an almost middle aged man makes to find his place in society. He starts out a misfit but doesn't wish to end that way. Does he make it? Well, buy or rent this one and find out for yourself. The movie is sprinkled with real seeming characters who act believably. That's its main strength. The other strength is really a negative one. The movie has no gross out 'gags', no or at least very few incidents of 'bad' language, nothing overtly sexual, nothing blows up, catches fire or gets crushed. As others have said, this movie doesn't deserve an R rating or even a PG-13 one. It was cheated for some reason by the ratings agency. I strongly recommend this film for the entire family. It shows the building of relationships through common goals as well as resolution of conflict through means other than taking an RPG and blowing the other faction up. It's also darned funny and touching in places.

I enjoyed The Hammer more than I ever expected to. Although at first I was quite excited at the aspect of an Adam Carolla movie, I was a little worried that it wouldn't be funny and would tarnish his name. However, this film more than lived up to my expectations. I found myself genuinely laughing out loud as I watched this movie. Old "Loveline" fans will especially enjoy this movie, due to his unique humor that we all loved so much on that particular show. I especially enjoyed this movie because Carolla never tries too hard to make a joke funny, as is the problem in many of today's comedies. Even if you are not a Carolla fan, please buy, or at least rent this film; you will not regret it.

One liners galore, but what else would you expect from Adam Carolla he's like the king of one liners. So many times in this film another character says something and you can just feel a one liner coming and bam there it is, and for the most part it's hilarious. Especially a scene at the La brea Tar Pits, the hits just kept on coming line after line just kept getting funnier and funnier, I do wish that more of the film would have let Adam loose like that. Even though those moments are the highlights of the film that is not all there is to it, it has a unique story with dare I say a message and a believable bond between it's characters. Carolla could have easily have delivered his lines and just delivered a standard comedic performance and left it at that, but in some ways he really develops a great character who is unique and multifaceted. OK, maybe that's a little too generous but he does do a good job as does his supporting cast. Yes it's a simple film, yes it's a simple plot, but some times it's the characters from those simple stories that we can relate to the best.

Finally found a copy of this in my local video store, about 2 years after it's release. "The Hammer" stars Adam Carolla as Jerry, a boxing instructor who gets a chance at appearing in the Olympics after he is seen holding his own against a pro at the local gym. Jerry had promise as a young fighter but never gave his all. Now 40, he gets another shot at boxing glory. It's supposed to be a story of a down-and -outer who gets "one more shot at life" and therefore plays out reasonably predictably. A bit of a strange choice for Carolla, who obviously didn't have to act his brains out in the movie but the mildness of the content and attempt at pulling the heartstrings seemed weird for a guy who's built his career out of being a loudmouth, sexist, racist funny guy. Some good one liners and a pleasant enough story but just seemed like a strange script for what you would have expected.

My wife and I just went to see this at the Burbank AMC. Now, she has been an Ace listener for a while, and she didn't tell me anything about the movie, so I was a bit skeptical. But here's my take on "The Hammer": This movie rocks. Comedy, Drama, a little bit of romance... this is a couples movie, a guy's movie and a family movie all-in-one! The comedic timing and excellent give and take made this movie the one to see. The scene in the hardware store, switching from construction to sports stats was managed so effortlessly I almost missed the reference. Brilliant! The robe Ozzy made with Duct Tape was a perfect touch. The door on the truck flying open. ROFL, I loved it! The script kept us glued to the movie the entire way through. We enjoyed "The Hammer" so much, we are taking a couple of friends to see it tomorrow. Definitely worth paying full price!

I rented this last night from Blockbuster, upon reading the comments on IMDb. I had been eyeing it on my past few visits, and finally decided to give it a shot. Yep, it was good, and I was not surprised. Adam Corolla is a smart man, he came up with a decent story and had somebody write a decent script for it. While I'm not a huge fan, I like his deadpan humor quite a bit, and he uses it to full effect in his movie. He doesn't play a character he essentially is himself, and it works, he doesn't try to act himself into something he's not. What I was surprised about is his athletic agility, I didn't realize he was so athletic, or did he have stand ins? I'll give it a second watch and pay more attention to that. All in all, nice simple story, no special effects, just a good low budget movie about human beings and a somewhat surprising ending that I won't spoil. Not that it is in my top ten movies of all time, but maybe my recent top ten. Go ahead, give it a watch and enjoy it. I did. Sometimes simplicity is the best policy, I hope Adam will do another one and keep it simple again...