The last time I entered a cinema to watch an MMA-themed movie – Never Back Down – My girlfriend at the time left the building vowing never to attend a movie with me again after I complained and bickered for the full 94 minutes.
I am happy to report that history didn’t repeat itself when I watched Here Comes the Boom.
Scott Voss (Kevin James) was once a great teacher. He used unorthodox methods to educate, enlighten and entertain his classes of students but over time has been degraded by the public schooling system into a slacker who counts the minutes until his day finishes.
The motorcycle-riding, unhappy school teacher, who is currently in his mid-life crisis’, has his agenda changed when financial cut-backs from the school force them to close the music department and in return leave his friend Marty Streb (Henry Winkler) out of a job while he has a baby on the way.
The former Division I wrestler needs to earn $47,000 or the budget cuts will leave Marty on the unemployment line. Without a clear option he looks to teach a citizenships class for a few dollars on the side when he links with Niko (Bas Rutten).
The barely-exaggerated version of the colorful former Pride Fighting Championships commentator looks to get extra classes to earn his United States citizenship when he introduces Voss to the Ultimate Fighting Championship and the sort of money the athletes can earn competing at the highest levels.
The proverbial light bulb goes in Voss’s head as he looks to compete in mixed martial arts with the idea to lose fights and build up a small fortune to save Marty’s job.
Beginning fighting at the death-row of regional mixed martial arts events that aren’t a far cry from the reality of most regional shows, he starts taking beatings to line his pockets and slowly begins to improve.
What comes next has been done in thousands of movies you’ve watched, but it works – Loveable underdog needs large sum of money in a short period of time, does something he doesn’t like to get cash fast while casually wooing a beautiful woman along the way.
As a mixed martial arts fan there are a number of nuggets that will give you laughs as you’ll feel like they placed a major inside joke on the screen for your enjoyment, including a re-enactment of Chael Sonnen “not tapping out” incident in World Extreme Cagefighting and an ode to Don Frye and Yoshihiro Takayama’s classic brawl from 2002.
While Kevin James is great at playing his role, its Bas Rutten who steals the show. Rutten plays a Dutch immigrant and former professional fighter who now trains fighters at a local gym. While he doesn’t have a lot of acting experience under his belt, he makes up for it by being the over-the-top, colorful personality.
Director Frank Caraci does a great job of capturing the fight scenes with everything coming across as realistic. Voss’s main move is the armbar, and they continuously drill the move through the film, with all of it easy to swallow for every level of fight fandom or knowledge.
I entered this movie with low expectations. In fact, I entered salivating at the prospect of tearing it up, but for an MMA-themed, light-hearted movie, there could be worse things you could do with your time.
