Director: Frank Coraci
Those who
are familiar with Kevin James from his long running sitcom The King of Queens know that he has a knack for making comedy out
of the everyday struggles blue-collar Americans face. Personally, I think he’s a very talented
comedian who can be flat-out hilarious. My
wife and I are fans of The King of Queens,
however, his movies (example Paul Blart:
Mall Cop and Zookeeper) haven’t
been overly impressive. They’ve focused more
on James as the physical goof-ball and the humor has worn a bit thin. If you follow box office projections, you
know that expectations for his latest effort,
Here Comes the Boom, are on the lower end.
I attribute this in large part because people expect more of the same.
So, I was
pleasantly surprised to find that Here
Comes the Boom is not just the “same old”.
The movie, co-written by and starring Kevin James, definitely displays
some of his signature physically comedic routines, such as breaking out into
wild dance moves, hurling himself through a classroom window to avoid being
late (note: he’s the teacher and he
starts off behaving more like the worst student in the room), and attempting to
slam dunk a basketball and having it not go so well. However, the movie has a mission and a
definite theme. James plays a school
teacher who has lost his inspiration and is kind of in a rut. He’s not happy with where his life is
going. He’s not happy that the school is
making budget cuts that will affect the job of the music teacher down the hall
(played by Henry Winkler, the FONZ). He’s
not successful at wooing the other teacher down the hall (played by Salma
Hayek) to go out on a date. To reflect the
dismal state, the whole first half of the film is shot with a low-lit, cloudy
filter. You can see the dust accumulated
on rails in the classroom and you get the feeling the whole school, and the
town in general, just needs to be saved.
Without going into too much detail, James’ character takes on a
challenge to help raise money to save the music program at the school and his
friend’s job. He gets involved in Mixed
Martial Arts to do so. Think Rocky with a comedic twist.
To say the
movie attempts to make a statement would be correct. It’s not a political statement (not directly
at least) but more of a statement on the human condition. Overall, they are promoting that people stand
up and try. Stop waiting around. Get up, get active and create change one
person at a time. It’s all been done
before in many other films and stories, but that makes it no less
effective. I was moved by how well the
movie reflected our current times and the feeling that I know many people
have. Let’s be honest, how else can we
perceive of something like a multi-trillion dollar debt problem…the word
helpless tends to sneak in there.
Needless to
say, this family-friendly movie takes a positive approach and by the end of the
film you are feeling like everything is going to be ok for James’ character,
for the school music program, and life in general. I think this is what the filmmaking team wants
you to take away from the film – a positive feeling. I’ll even say that the last line of the film,
“Viva America”, stuck with me. It is the
follow up on a punch-line joke (you see James’ character also teaches a nightly
class for immigrants working on their citizenship applications). I’m certain that it was intentional that these
were the last words spoken in the movie.
Like many Americans, these filmmakers love this country and want to see
some positive turnarounds….and I’m hoping they get their wish. I didn’t expect to come out of a movie titled “Here
Comes the Boom” and write these words.
The movie is funny, there are definitely several moments where I laughed
out loud. It was the moments that made
me think about things larger than this movie that I didn’t expect. It was a pleasant surprise.
Go see the
movie and decide for yourself.
