Here Comes The Boom

Bring the Funny... and the Pain!

★ ★ ★ ★ out of 5 buckets | Matinee or DVD

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Rated: PG Some rude humor, language and bouts of MMA sports violence

Release Date: October 12, 2012

Runtime: 1 hour 45 minutes

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Director: Frank Coraci
Writers: Kevin James, Rock Reuben, Allan Loeb
Cast: Kevin James, Salma Hayek, Henry Winkler, Greg Germann, Joe Rogan, Gary Valentine, Bas Rutten, Krzysztof Soszynski

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SYNOPSIS: A high school biology teacher, in order to raise thousands of dollars to save the school's music program, concocts a crazy plan to become a local mixed martial arts fighter.

REVIEW: Director Frank Coraci, known for Zookeeper and The Waterboy, continues with his Kevin James star for a hard-hitting comedy that will end up hurting a little bit. Based on a script by James, Zookeeper scribe Rock Rueben, and Rock of Ages writer Allan Loeb, Kevin James plays a defeated teacher who tries to redeem himself as an educator and a fighter in order to save his school's extra-curricular activities.

Scott Voss (Kevin James, Zookeeper), a biology teacher for years, finds himself barely able to care about the students in his class. When a teacher/principal meeting brings to light that all of the school's extra-curricular activities, including Marty Streb's (Henry Winkler, Click) music class, will need to be cut in order to stay within budget, Scott takes on Principal Betcher (Greg Germann, Bolt) in an attempt to raise the $50,000 to save the school programs. Aided by Marty, the school's health technician Bella Flores (Salma Hayek, The Pirates! Band of Misfits), and one of his naturalization citizenship course attendees, Niko (Bas Rutten, Paul Blart: Mall Cop), Scott enters the world of competitive mixed martial arts to try to win enough money to save the school programs.

Kevin James gets in the Octagon of mixed martial arts with all the training of, well, a forty-something biology teacher. Couple that with his typical oafish underdog demeanor and charm that you have come to expect from James, and you have the comedic version of Joel Edgerton's Warrior. Both are high school teachers with some fighting or wrestling background forced into hand-to-hand competition because of financial reasons. Both battle against pressure from their peers, students, principals, and internet videos. Both even have brothers with their own issues to deal with. Here Comes The Boom's Gary Valentine plays financially strapped brother, painter and family man Eric Voss, a much different man than the talented torture of Tom Hardy.

There are plenty of laughs as evident from the trailers. Luckily, the laughs don't stop there. Kevin James' physical antics are worth the price of admission. From failed slam dunks as a bet to cook dinner for Bella to some of the early unsanctioned underground MMA events, Kevin James' Scott Voss is the epitome of a man out of his depth. Watching him venture out on his reluctant and defiant journey is akin to watching a funnier version of Stallone's Rocky Balboa train for his fight against Apollo Creed or Drago. Add in fine chemistry between Voss and Bella, and silly interactions with foreign residents looking to become naturalized citizens, and the laughs take on all comers.

James bringing the funny is just one of the facets to this film. Here Comes The Boom also is an underdog story of a man trying to make good. Becoming a mixed martial arts competitor is not his first plan, but in order to raise enough money before the end of the school year, he puts life and limb on the line against far more experienced fighters. As Voss moves from one undercard to another, and raises bits of cash to submit to the school, he must face his own pain and uncertainties. There are some fairly aggressive fighting sequences in the last third of the film that will exchange the smiles for winching, and laughs for cringes. Kevin James strikes a good balance between the action, story, and humor.

If you liked Kevin James in Paul Blart: Mall Cop, you will enjoy Here Comes The Boom just fine! Add in Henry Winkler with a Water Boy caliber performance and a supporting cast that serves to make for a painfully good time. You may laugh until you are doubled over in pain, and may cringe with every MMA blow that James takes in the caged octagon, but you will have a good time. Of course there is silliness and a plot hole or two, but you can't help but root for a man fighting way out of his league in order to make sure that his students have a future.

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Savages

A Little Tame

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Rated: R  Strong brutal and grisly violence, some graphic sexuality, nudity, drug use and language throughout.
Release Date: July 6, 2012
Runtime:  2 hours 10 minutes

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Director: Oliver Stone
Writers: Shane Salerno, Don Winslow, Oliver Stone, from the novel by Don Winslow
Cast:  Taylor Kitsch, Aaron Johnson, Benicio Del Toro, Salma Hayek, Blake Lively, John Travolta, Emile Hirsch

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SYNOPSIS: A young idealistic man and his long time combat veteran friend run a thriving marijuana business in Laguna Beach. When they refuse the networking and distribution offer of a Mexican Cartel, Ben and Chon find themselves at the bad end of a power struggle involving the kidnapping of the girl they both love.

REVIEW: Platoon and JFK writer/director Oliver Stone returns to the helm to bring us a tale of love, sacrifice, and the drug trade. The always working writer/director turns away from the steel and glass of the east coast's Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps to the hot sands and temperate waters of the west coast for the recession-proof cannabis business of Savages. Written by Shane Salerno (Aliens vs Predator: Requiem), Don Winslow (The Death and Life of Bobby Z), and Oliver Stone himself, Savages delves into the backdrops of this entrepreneurial industry and the lives of those who run it.

Multiple Middle Eastern tour combat veteran Chon (Taylor Kitsch, John Carter of Mars) and his longtime double major botanist/business friend Ben (Aaron Johnson, Kick-Ass!) have a moment of enlightenment one day to grow the best cannabis on the west coast. Chon smuggles in the best seeds from Afghanistan and Ben tinkers with the crops until their product is the most sought after. Co-habitating with their shared love Ophelia (Blake Lively, Green Lantern), nicknamed "O", the trio enjoys a thriving, non-violent drug trade, selling to medicinal facilities and taking advantage of a growing network of satisfied growers, distributors, and customers. When Ben and Chon are offered a partnership by a Mexican Drug Cartel looking to expand their own business, Ben and Chon refuse and are given 24 hours to reconsider the offer. When Ben, Chon, and O plan to go off the grid, O is kidnapped by Lado (Benicio Del Toro, The Wolfman) and his men under the order of cartel head Elena (Salma Hayek, Grown Ups). Faced with either giving up their business or losing their girlfriend, Ben and Chon opt for a third option of raiding Elena's business for cash and disrupting her organization in a bloody manner in order to get O back.

What starts off with as a narrative from Blake Lively’s character outlining her relationship to both war-wearing Chon and the Buddhist idealist Ben, and their dreamy surreal lives and growing business of growing cannabis, quickly sours when the businessmen are offered a partnership deal from the Mexican cartel that they shouldn’t refuse – but do refuse to bloody consequences. Oliver Stone depicts grisly beheadings of minions or disgraced partners at the hand of Del Toro’s Lado, while outlining a more complex plot for multiple political and business back-stabbings. At the heart, though, are personal relationships. We know why Ophelia is with both Ben (the spirit and warm wood) and Chon (the earth and cold metal) per Ophelia’s narrative. Salma has a tough road with familia due to the murders of her husband and two of her sons, leaving her with an estranged distant relationship with her daughter living in California. Many will sacrifice much for business, but will sacrifice everything for family.

While the camera work is both intimate and grand, it is fine acting from key players that bleeds through. Taylor Kitsch, having to needlessly rebound after a less-than-stellar box office for John Carter of Mars, brings in a strong steely performance as the war veteran who knows that violence is the only language that the Mexican cartel truly understands. Aaron Johnson is almost unrecognizable from his Kick-Ass! Days as the gentle bohemian business mastermind who is forced to understand that even Buddhist teachings allow for violence when necessary. Salma Hayek brings in a solid performance as always, mixing her beauty with a dash of brutality. But the actor who steals the show is Benicio Del Toro as the shady Lado, the right-hand enforcer to Elena. He character is understated, efficient, and matter-of-fact, playing all sides for his own interests while he relishes the chaos he creates in an attempt to restore order. John Travolta (From Paris With Love), playing the corrupt DEA agent Dennis who gets a cut of Ben and Chon’s action, plus high quality cannabis for his dying wife. One of the best scenes in the film is a dialogue between Lado and Dennis in Dennis’s kitchen where he must voice his worth to Lado before Lado assassinates him. Another scene, more violent this time, has Lado interrogating a snitch with his men, Ben and Chon, and Elena and Ophelia looking on.

As stated earlier, Blake Lively’s Ophelia serves as the narrator through the film, her voice sedating relaying the information needed to get through to the next point of the story. Whether the narrative was critical to the book (I have not read it), I feel the narrative served as a cheat and a lazy way to propel the story. Sure, Martin Sheen’s Captain Benjamin Willard serves as his own narrator, journaling the events he could barely comprehend. William Holden’s Joe Gillis did the same thing in Sunset Blvd Hell, even Savages own Aaron Johnson lent his voice talents to his too-human superhero in Kick-Ass!. But Ophelia states from the very beginning and over and over that she may not be alive at the end of the tale, as if to talk us into a way of thinking. That interior voice may have worked on parchment, but loses a little something in this story’s telling.

Oliver Stone is one of the great directors of our time, striking at the imagination with films like JFK and Born on the Fourth of July. With Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and, now, with Savages, Stone may have lost a little of what made his work so provocative in the past. The work is still good, but some of the choices do not resonate like they once did. Just the ending alone may make you question why you sat through the film.

Maybe satisfying, maybe not, Savages will certainly polarize your opinion of the film’s story, direction, and outcome. The acting is solid across the board, and the pace picks up nicely midway through the film. But to put Savages in the canon of Oliver Stone’s other works may be to tarnish all of the great works he has directed to date.

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WORTH: Rental

Puss In Boots

Purrfectly Acceptable

Director: Chris Miller

Writers: Charles Perrault, Brian Lynch, David H. Steinberg, Tom Wheeler, Jon Zack
Cast: Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Zach Galifianakis, Billy Bob Thorton, Amy Sedaris

SYNOPSIS: Before he crosses paths and swords with Shrek, Puss in Boots embarks on a quest to find magic beans that will lead to the goose that lays the golden eggs. Joining him are thief Kitty Soft Paws and childhood orphan friend Humpty Alexander Dumpty.

REVIEW: Chris Miller, writer and director of Shrek the Third, returns to helm the first Shrek spin-off Puss in Boots. Now that the Shrek series has run its course, DreamWorks goes back to uncover an origin story of one of the series' well-loved characters. Based on characters by "Mother Goose" creator Charles Perrault, Brian Lynch (Hop), David H. Steinberg (Slackers), Tom Wheeler (NBC's The Cape), and Jon Zack (The Perfect Score) team up for an original script on the sword-wielding, leather-booted feline.

Instead of the medieval Renaissance Fair that is the world of Shrek, princesses, dragons, and talking donkeys, Puss in Boots changes the landscape from fairy tale forests to spanish sands. We meet up with Puss (Antonio Banderas) at the height of his outlaw notoriety in the canyons and plains outside of San Ricardo, the town he grew up in at Imelda's orphanage. Flashing back and forth in his life, we find out about Puss' blood-brother friendship with fellow orphan Humpty Dumpty (Zack Galifianakis), whose inventive and intelligent nature is only exceeded by his passion to find three magic beans that will lead to the goose that lays the golden eggs. They grow up close. But as they grow up, Pus becomes the hero of the town and Humpty becomes obsessed with beans. Flash forward in time and we find Puss a thief and a romantic Don Juan, tracking a big score that will redeem his reputation in San Ricardo. Foiled in the stealing of Jack (Billy Bob Thorton) and Jill's (Amy Sedaris) magic beans by the masked cat burgler Kitty Soft Paws (Salma Hayek), Puss in forced into an alliance with a grown up Humpty and Soft Paws with a master plan to get the beans and the golden eggs.

DreamWorks continues to produce animation that dazzles and thrills. With attention to every detail, from the whiskers on Puss' face to the gristled whiskers of a dead beat bar patron, Puss in Boots is a joy to watch. Funny and silly, takes on new storybook characters with Jack's mysterious and elusive magic beans, a more-driven Humpty Dumpty, a Bonnie and Clyde version of Jack and Jill, and the pursuit of the goose that lays golden eggs. Puss, as the center of attention, pulls off the lead role with style and a feather in his hat. Some of the sequences are longer than necessary, especially the duel between Puss and Kitty after the failed magic bean thief from Jack and Jill, but the rest is well paced and exciting.

Puss in Boots was the logical choice as the successor of the Shrek family of films. I mean, who would go see a Ginderbread Man flick? Maybe Pinocchio would would be good as a Mission Impossible/Bourne Identity spin-off. All in all, Puss in Boots is good swashbuckling fun, albeit with a little heavy-hearted drama that comes with a bad kitty with baggage.

WORTH: Matinee or DVD