The Hammer

For being such a low budget film I was very surprised at how good this film was. Just goes to show that money doesn't make a great film; good story, good acting, lots of funny one-liners and a heart-warming plot do.

I definitely recommend that you watch this!

***FILLER*** aka blah, blah........

I hope Adam Coralla puts together another film. Its too bad this one went straight to DVD with little to no publicity. I've seen numerous films with huge budgets and tons of publicity which were absolutely terrible...........

Adam Carolla is one of those guys you either really like, or really hate. There doesn't quite seem to have been an in-between opinion about him since he rose to national fame as co-host of "The Man Show" in 1999. I've heard a lot of bad things about him, and I haven't been the biggest fan of his myself.

That being said, however, I never would have expected him to write and star in a very smart comedy with a surprising amount of heart to it. After all, you initially think this movie is a rags to riches story about a blue collar worker who finds he can actually make it as a professional boxer. Carolla appears to have taken that now-cliché premise and turn it right on its head in a good way.

So why is this movie great? Why does it deserve 8 out of 10 stars? My answer: it's just very enjoyable to watch, and it has some somewhat unpredictable turns amidst the very clever one-liners from Carolla. Some of Carolla's lines I'm still laughing at even after seeing the movie last night. One of Carolla's best moments is when he gets pulled over by a cop. The rant that follows is just hilarious.

With all the laughs, this story has a heart that fits in pretty well, and doesn't make the movie too schmaltzy or cheesy. Of course, a movie about boxing wouldn't be complete without a climactic fight in the end, and this movie indeed has one. Without giving too much away, the way that fight ends is quite unexpected, especially coming from Carolla, but it was so sincere an ending that it ended the movie in a very satisfactory way.

I probably used the word "surprising" a lot in this review, but that's for good reason. It's a good thing when a movie comes along that you have low expectations for, and it just blows you away with its creativity and originality, especially given its premise. After all, you can go so far with a movie about sports. Take Burt Reynolds, for example. His most recent sports romp, "Cloud 9", began with a great premise, but ended up just as cliché as most other sports movies. This coming from the actor (and producer) who brought us "The Longest Yard" too.

My biggest grievance about this movie comes not from its content, but from the Motion Picture Association of America for rating this movie R. This was the biggest misfire on the MPAA ever. This movie had one use of the F-word, no lethal violence, no explicit sexual content, and no suggestive themes. It should have been rated PG-13, period. This movie could be the prime example of the MPAA's inefficiency and inaccuracy, and it's a shame that low-budget gems like this movie have to suffer for it.

As for Adam Carolla, though, his stock went way up in my book after seeing this movie. As soon as it comes out on DVD, I'm buying it for sure.

As one would expect from an Adam Corolla movie, there are plenty of the rapier witticisms he is known for, and there is a solid laugh-out-loud every few minutes for the duration. But, more importantly, the story is a really sweet, engaging and uplifting tale of a middle aged slacker who takes one last shot at achieving his dreams, or at least realizing what they are. It was truly beautiful, in the way he comes to embrace his life and mission. Also, credit to Adam's heavily-accented Nicaraguan friend Ozzie as his sidekick, the duo has something of a Don Quixote-Sancho Panza feel to it, which works very well. I'm an AC fan, but my wife is not, and she loved it as well. This might be the best "small movie" I've ever seen.

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...

Adam has commented on his show about the slight insult associated with people giving him good reviews and compliments with qualifying comments like "actually good" and "surprisingly funny", and followed with, "No, really, its REALLY actually good". Although I don't think Adam should take too much offense as I believe their surprise is a reflection on the low expectations of comedic films recently as much as those who may be surprised that they like Adam Carolla more than they originally thought, as Adam creates a character who is easy to relate to in a film that is easily accessible to many people. And the reason it is accessible is that it is a good movie with a good script and good acting and good jokes. It does not need to rely on what Hollywood considers a proved formula or proved actor.

The Hammer is a good movie. I know that sounds like a generic compliment but in my opinion it is really hard to find a smart comedy that is also a genuinely good movie nowadays. The story is original. The tone is easy going and is confident in it's purpose and saves you the pain of sitting through a comedy that tries too hard to be funny. This is not the best movie you have seen all year, but it will definitely entertain, make you laugh, make you think and you will leave the theater feeling like your $7-10 you spent was well worth it. The material is laugh out loud funny with some of the dry wit, creative complaints and analytical commentary on life that fans of Adam are used to. My wife, who is not a big fan of Adam, loved the movie and thought it was well written. She also enjoyed Oswaldo "Ozzie" Castillo, who is charming and funny as his Nicaraguan friend. The role came naturally for him as Ozzie is Adam's friend in real life and worked construction with him back in his pre-celebrity days.

It seems like all of the really funny and smart comedy has always come from someone who is given a blank slate and allowed to do more or less whatever they want without much interference or censorship. By this I am referring to shows such as Family Guy, South Park, Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld and movies such as Anchorman, Ace Ventura, The Jerk, Swingers, Clerks, etc. What all of these have in common is that they start out being small enough and done cheap enough so that TV/studio executives don't care enough to get overly involved in. Or in some cases the star is proved to be funny in stand-up or TV but they are given a shot to do what they want in their first movie as long as it is done cheap to see how it goes. Either way, they are allowed to be original, daring and edgy without the people funding it insisting on the "safe" formula. The catch is that because they start out small, they need to fight to get a good footing and gain an audience. The Hammer is this movie that needs to fight for the audience it deserves for Adam Carolla.

For those familiar with Adam Carolla and his radio show, it is exactly what all the good reviews and discussion on the show lead you to believe about the movie. For those of you who don't know, Adam paid to distribute the movie himself due to the problems he ran into with distributors who passed on a movie that does not fit into a cookie-cutter formula. And we have all seen what "proven" box office comedic actors have yielded lately. There is a mile-long list of crap put out by the likes of the Adam Sandler/SNL crew, Dane Cook and the Wayans Brothers milking the Scary Movie formula as many times as the studio will let them. One of the main reasons distributors passed on the movie was that it was appealing to "too many" people and could not be easily marketed to a "target audience", which ironically is a negative for them. This is true, as many people young and old, mean and women, were in the theater and everyone was laughing. Half of the audience actually clapped at the end which is a rarity nowadays.

Therefore this movie needs the support of a good first week and word-of-mouth advertising to gain a foothold and be a stick-it-to-the-man indie movie victory. If movies like The Hammer don't get support it deserves, it is just more justification for studios and distributors not to support anything beyond the usual repetitive crap you see in theaters.

So do yourself a favor and go see it in theaters, and if you are reading this after it has already gone to DVD then pick it up and check it out. You will definitely see a good and worthwhile movie and one of two things will happen. A) You can see it early then tell others about it and be one of those people who "discover" a good thing early and can tell people "I saw it back when..." once it becomes a hit, like a band you discovered early and watched rise to stardom. Or B) You can hold it as one of those nice little "secrets" and you can be part of an exclusive club of people with good taste, much like a good Italian restaurant not many people know about and you are kind of glad people don't know so it can be "yours", and you can always get a seat without waiting.