SYNOPSIS
After losing his construction job just after turning 40, an aimless man (Adam Carolla) decides to take one last shot at reviving his boxing career and making the Olympics.
CRITIQUE
The Hammer is an unexpectedly-likable film, a low-budget comedy that Adam Carolla (who produced and wrote the story) made with a bunch of his friends. There isn’t a huge amount of plot here – basically this is a comic rife on films like Rocky – but Carolla gives a very appealing performance in the lead role, and there are amusing moments throughout. The result is slight but appealing, and it is worth picking up off a video store shelf.
Corolla plays a likable semi-loser named Jerry Ferro, who as a teen let a promising boxing career slip away when he was an amateur; now he bounces around from construction job to construction job, while teaching boxing at the local gym and watching his 40th birthday slide by and his fed-up girlfriend leave him. Jerry gets one last chance to try out for the Olympics, unaware that the trainer encouraging him really just wants a free sparring partner for the fighter he is backing.
The bulk of the story is made up of Jerry training and fighting, interspersed with his romancing a female lawyer taking his boxing class. The result has more chuckles than big laughs, but this holds together well overall; Heather Juergensen has a quirky appeal as the love interest, while Carolla’s real-life Nicaraguan friend Oswaldo Castillo has some amusing bits essentially playing himself here.
But its Carolla who is the revelation here, managing to make Jerry an appealing central character and carrying the film, in a character that he built to his strengths; in real-life, Carolla is also a carpenter and teaches boxing. The result is an easy tale to get caught up in and entertained by; worth a look.
THE VIDEO
The Hammer is presented in a matted widescreen, preserving the aspect ratio of its original theatrical exhibition. The film is low budget, and in some of the sequences this shows, though overall the picture quality isn’t bad.
THE AUDIO
The Hammer is presented in English 5.1 Dolby Digital. Dialogue, music and sound effects come through clear. There are English and Spanish subtitles.
THE EXTRAS
There is a funny, appealing Audio Commentary featuring Adam Carolla and his co-writer Kevin Hench, as they talk about the film, the fact that the truck stopped running after a while and needed to be pushed, the film’s inexplicable R-rating (earned for just a pair of curse words) and Carolla’s make-out scenes with Juergensen, who is Hench’s wife.
There are over 9 minutes of Deleted Scenes, some of them amusing. Most are just trims, or Carolla improvising alternate takes that weren’t used.
There are 4 minutes of Outtakes, and also 10 minutes of Behind-the-Scenes footage apparently shot as six Internet bits.
A Conversation with Adam & Ozzie is a 17-minute bit in which the two muse about their 19-year friendship and the fact that together they built the Pasadena gym that part of the movie takes place in.
Ozzie’s ADR Session is a 2-minute audio bit in which Carolla tries to get the English-challenged Ozzie to pronounce his lines well enough to understand.
There’s also a Trailer and a Still Gallery.
FINAL THOUGHT
A sweet, amusing tale that proves a good showcase for Adam Carolla.
