Share
The Hammer: Charmingly Mediocre
Adam Carolla comedy keeps its ambitions low
By Aaron Hillis
Tuesday, March 18th 2008 at 1:07pm
Former Loveline and The Man Show co-host Adam Carolla brings his self-deprecating, improvisational, regular-dude deadpan—as well as his former Golden Gloves status—to this semi-autobiographical comedy with ambitions so low that one might call it charmingly mediocre. Carolla's sitcom-grade doppelgänger is Jerry Ferro, a once-promising southpaw with the titular nickname who quit boxing for a life of menial construction jobs and a girlfriend who loathes him. After a ludicrous sparring match against a beefy up-and-comer, the unfit 40-year-old tries for one last shot at Olympic glory, and Carolla tries to sell us on the mustiest of underdog premises. Directed by Charles Herman-Wurmfeld (Kissing Jessica Stein) and written by long-time Carolla producer Kevin Hench, the film is essentially Rocky Balboa in a lighter weight class, with snarky barbs, a wacky Nicaraguan sidekick (Oswaldo Castillo), and a too-good-to-be-true love interest (Heather Juergensen, Hench's wife and she who smooched Jessica Stein). With collaborators like these, it's surprising the film doesn't feature lesbians jumping on trampolines, too.
Recent Articles
More by Aaron Hillis
Site Search «
Most Popular
-
The Strangest Landlord-Tenant Relationship In Town? Stacked up in cubicles for decades, immigrants living in a Bowery tenement may have a very unusual situation.
-
The Pet-Death Business All dogs go to heaven. Yours will probably get there in an urn.
- We've Bailed out the Banks. When Do We Go After the Crooks Behind our Financial Collapse?
- On Michael Jackson's Mercifully Goofy, Cheerful This Is It
-
The Secret Life of Girls On the latest blog-rock sensation's improbable, somewhat verifiable backstory
| buy, sell, trade 10,215 | musician 3,527 |
| rentals 13,040 | jobs 2,236 |
| adult entertainment 34,995 | |
| classifieds | backpage.com | Post ads for free! | |
|---|---|