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.
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.