Here Comes The Boom has all the clich ufffds of an everyday hero movie but fails to make you laugh
Director: Frank Coraci
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Starring: Kevin James, Salma Hayek, Bas Rutten, Henry Winkler
Label: Sony DADC
Price: Rs 499
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Kevin James is a likeable comic actor. He is sincere, he has great comedic timing, and he is just the kind of guy a filmmaker or TV show producer could depend upon for reasonably good ratings. The King of Queens, a hit TV series in which he plays courier company employee Doug Hefferman is a case in point.
In Here Comes The Boom, directed by Frank Coraci, James continues his “Good Guy In The Neighbourhood” image. It does not do him much good though, because, emotional as Indian audiences are, they would rather have a good script over a feel-good actor. Here Comes The Boom has all the clichés of an Everyday Hero movie — a man who wants to save his school’s music programme and goes all out to earn the $48,000 needed to do that — gets beaten up by a mixed martial arts champion inside a metal cage. Not to mention a hot chick (Salma Hayek) who falls for him.
At several points during the fight, James’ character Scott Voss falls flat on his face, beaten by an obviously stronger opponent. Just like the movie. There are heartfelt moments between Hayek’s nurse character and James college wrestler-turned-biology teacher act, but even those feel a bit forced given that the foundation of the script is so weak.
You know at each point in the film what’s going to happen, much like you know what’s going to happen in the greatest cliché-ridden TV series of all time — the popular ‘CID’ on Sony, one of the longest running TV shows in the country?
To compensate for an utter lack of originality, the DVD viewer may want to watch some extras, but beyond a couple of minutes of interesting content, there is nothing much to view. You might as well be staring at a tall ceiling and watch an occasional spider walk past. The only likeable part in the movie, to be honest, is Kevin James, who tries hard, really hard to make us laugh by getting himself insulted all the time. But beyond a point it just does not work.
If you have seen Mr Holland’s Opus, the Richard Dreyfus classic, you will see shades of the theme of an underachiever, depressed hero. But Mr Holland’s Opus was a tear-jerker in the real sense. Kevin James' Here Comes The Boom also brings you to tears, but only because you are left wondering — why did I ever decide to watch this?