'HERE COMES THE BOOM'

'HERE COMES THE BOOM' (PG-13)(3 STARS)

Written by Kevin James, Allan Loeb and Rock Reuben
Directed by Frank Coraci
Actors: Kevin James, Salma Hayek, Henry Winkler, Bas Rutten, Greg Germann.

When I saw the trailer for the new Kevin James comedy "Here Comes the Boom" I kind of had a strange feeling of wanting to see it. Kevin James has not made a movie I have liked save for a weird half like of "Paul Blart Mall Cop". All of Kevin James's star vehicles have been dumbed down. I like James a lot, I think he is funny and very likeable so I am disheartened to see him in crap like "Zookeeper". Kevin James is again likeable here and this time he is given a story that grew on me. It is not a deep movie but it has laughs, a very charming debut performance and it had the kids I saw this with cheering. I even got swept up in the cornball underdog story.

Kevin James plays Scott Voss who is a biology teacher who has kind of slacked off lately. That is until he finds out that his high school is going through financial problems. The music department might be cut and the sweet music teacher Marty might be out of a job soon. Marty is played by Henry Winkler who is perfectly cast and gives a scene stealing performance. Scott wants to raise money to save the music program and he finds a second job teaching foreigners so they can become citizens. There he meets a student Niko from Holland who used to be an UFC fighter but suffered a career ending injury.

Scott comes to the student's house where he is watching a MMA fight and learns that even the loser wins major money, $10,000. Scott used to be a wrestler so he coaxes Niko to train him for the minor leagues of MMA. It first seems improbable that James would make a good MMA fighter but the filmmakers pull it off. The movie has a lot of charm and does not try to hard. I was afraid, being that it comes from Adam Sandler's production team, that the movie would have cheap jokes and come off as really stupid. I came away though with a big smile on my face because the movie has a good heart, is sweet and gets us cheering.

That has to do with Kevin James who finally gets a star vehicle that shows off his strengths. James is funny, charming and is good at playing an everyman type of character. He is not the type to surround with cheap jokes and lame family comedies like he has been given. He also does not have the greatest chemistry with Salma Hayek, who plays an English teacher that Scott fancies, but James is so likeable you cheer for them to get together. It also helps that the movie has Henry Winkler who is such comic gold here. Winkler is sweet and his performance is so charming he steals the movie. He is a great sidekick to Kevin James and they work so well together.

"Here Comes the Boom" is a lot of fun and it snuck up on me with it's charm and sweet, winning story. I have to end this review writing about another reason why I liked this movie. Former MMA champ Bas Rutten is a complete delight here in his first acting role. He gets some great lines and he delivers them so well. Here is a naturally gifted actor who made me smile. I would love to see Rutten do more, even action movies. He is funny, charming and winning just like the movie and he deserves to be in a lot more movies!

P.S. There was a movie called "Warrior" with Joel Edgerton and Tom Hardy that dealt with MMA and it was more serious than Boom but also was a very compelling crowd pleaser. I am not a fan of MMA but I loved these two movies, maybe MMA is more intriguing to me in the movies than in the real world of MMA. "Warrior" and "Here Comes the Boom" would make a very good double feature at The View and Brew!