Review of Here Comes the Boom (2012) by Harry W — 19 Jan 2014

On the surface, Here Comes the Boom sounds awesome since its about Kevin James engaging in MMA which sounds like the perfect front for his physical antics, but it tries to fit too many characters into its story without providing any individual focus on any singular person, and so who to really care about in Here Comes the Boom is ambiguous.

That prevents it from being a compelling story, because it piles on too many subplots instead of sticking to the entertainment value that comes from the main one. The dynamics just pile on and follow through with so many cliches due to all the varying characters, and so the actors never seem that dedicated to their roles and just try to pass with the bare essentials needed for director Frank Coraci to accept and then move on. But Frank Coraci forgets there is an audience that needs to accept the movie, and in this case I could not accept his directional effort since he failed to structure Here Comes the Boom or give any direction to the plot dynamics or actors. Plus he's working with Allan Loeb's unfunny script which I didn't laugh at once during Here Comes the Boom, therefore establishing it as a failure as a comedy.

And it doesn't take advantage of the fact that Here Comes the Boom does in fact have the heart of a sports story. It's one with a burning passion, one with determination to fight to be a good film. It has the sports feel, but this becomes a commodity ignored by a film attempting to be a comedy with a lot of silly characters, when it could have been a comedy about one man which also succeeded as a sports film. Really, Here Comes the Boom fails to take advantage of its high concept plot and therefore fails to pay justice to MMA, UFC or Kevin James.

But Kevin James sure does his part to pay justice to Here Comes the Boom, because his performance is routine yet confident, determined, strong and above all, greatly convincing as an UFC fighter. He pays the determination to his character even if it does poorly combine with his comedic intentions, and frankly he makes it worth watching and easy to sit through. He's the only actor that truly gives it his all in Here Comes the Boom, and his presence is genial.

Plus, Here Comes the Boom does feature good cinematography which positively leans over into its fight scenes which despite being occasionally clunky are strongly choreographed and filmed well, as well as being properly edited.

So Kevin James fights to make Here Comes the Boom a good film, but he's the only one fighting in a battle beaten by lacklustre direction, minimal laughs in the script and an uninspired cast amid too many subplots. Here Comes the Boom works as a sports film, but not as a comedy.