Hammer, The

57

Independent Film Circuit ( minutes)
and Charles Herman-Wurmfeld
Adam Carolla , Oswaldo Castillo , Jonathan Hernandez , Harold House Moore , and Heather Juergensen

Rating: R for brief language

Summary: Jerry Ferro's 40th birthday has brought his life into sharp relief, and it's not a pretty picture. A once-promising amateur boxer who quit so he wouldn't risk his perfect record of underachievement, Jerry has been knocking around from one construction job to another and spinning his wheels in an unsatisfying relationship, all the while with an eye toward eventually getting his shit together. His last connection to the fight game is the evening boxing class he teaches to middle-aged, middle-class, middle-management types at a gym in Pasadena, where he also works as a handyman. When venerable boxing coach Eddie Bell asks Jerry if he'd like to spar a couple of rounds with Malice Blake, an up-and-coming pro, Jerry reluctantly steps into the ring. Despite the butt-kicking Jerry otherwise receives, a one-punch knockdown of Blake convinces Jerry that it's time to make his return to competitive boxing. Thus ends a 20-year layoff and begins a hilarious fish-out-of-water quest for Olympic gold. (Independent Film Circuit)

Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide:
(75) It's genuinely funny, oddly romantic and surprisingly engaging for what could easily have been an obnoxious vanity project.

Joe Neumaier
New York Daily News:
(75) The Hammer benefits from Carolla's low-energy, low-impact style. He doesn't so much deliver quips as let them dribble out the side of his mouth.

Walter Addiego
San Francisco Chronicle:
(75) Nothing groundbreaking, but there's an easy charm in the movie.

Gene Seymour
Los Angeles Times:
(70) What you have here, essentially, is a classic "Honeymooners" episode juiced with tropes from the most recent "Rocky" movie.

Kyle Smith
New York Post:
(63) The script depends heavily on familiar stand-up comedy bits, but it's full of sharp wisecracks and slacker charm.

Matt Zoller Seitz
The New York Times:
(60) Rambling and disorganized. At the same time, though, The Hammer also has dry wit and unforced working-class swagger, and hits some surprising emotional notes.

<< Home