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Hammer, The
EMAILPRINTIndependent Film Circuit
Mixed or average reviews
Based on 12 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 27 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy
Written by:
Adam Carolla (story)
Kevin Hench
Directed by: Charles Herman-Wurmfeld
Release Date:
Theatrical: March 21, 2008
DVD: June 24, 2008
Running Time: minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for brief language
Starring Adam Carolla, Oswaldo Castillo, Jonathan Hernandez, Harold House Moore, and Heather Juergensen
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)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
It's genuinely funny, oddly romantic and surprisingly engaging for what could easily have been an obnoxious vanity project.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Joe Neumaier
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.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Walter Addiego
Nothing groundbreaking, but there's an easy charm in the movie.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Gene Seymour
What you have here, essentially, is a classic "Honeymooners" episode juiced with tropes from the most recent "Rocky" movie.
Read Full Review >New York Post Kyle Smith
The script depends heavily on familiar stand-up comedy bits, but it's full of sharp wisecracks and slacker charm.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Matt Zoller Seitz
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.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
So many movies these days are overworked or overblown: The Hammer feels genuinely tossed-off. It isn't a great movie, or even a consistently good one. Yet it gets to elusive feelings about failure and success, hope and mortality (and reveals a quietly subversive attitude toward the boxing-movie genre).
Read Full Review >Variety Ronnie Scheib
This inordinately likable and consistently funny boxing saga-cum-romantic comedy doesn't so much ridicule the "Rocky"-type inspirational sports fable as gently deflate its heroic overdrive.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Stephen Farber
The film hardly could be credited with breaking any new ground, but it has a hangdog charm, much like its leading actor.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Aaron Hillis
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.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
If you liked "Rocky Balboa" you should be in good shape, since it's exactly the same movie, just aimed at a teeny-tiny-bit younger demographic and with an affectless leading man who avoids hambone acting by not acting at all.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White
Plays like a pilot for a situation comedy about a 40-year-old carpenter who decides to return to the boxing ring.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 9.3 (out of 10) based on 27 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
r k gave it a6:
Sweet, clever. This is really straight from Carolla's heart. Suffers from some flat acting on the leading man's part (sorry, Ace-man). Nice use of music, with the exception of the "laugh now, 'cause we're being goofy" incidental musical bits. Overall worth your time, especially if you're a Carolla fan.
Derek G gave it a10:
I went in to The Hammer expecting the worst: Two hours of Carolla's frank, dry observational humor with a tacked on story. What I got was a surprisingly deep and even touching story of a 40 year old never-was trying to make something of himself. The acting is all charming and well casted, the music is top notch for an independent project, and it all works very well. I was on the brink of tears when I wasn't laughing out loud.
Tom L. gave it a10:
A rare gem. If your more than burned out on 100 million dollar Hollywood crap, take a chance on this. I can't believe more screens didn't pick this up. Well, leftist PC Hollywood doesn't give it's stamp of approval I guess.
Chad S. gave it a7:
Jerry Ferro(Adam Carolla) was legit, but he quit. That's why the former-Golden Gloves contender works as a day laborer with no designs forthcoming that portends of a life trajectory any less trivial and lamentable. But despite Jerry's advanced age, the down-and-out carpenter discovers that his aptitude for the sweet science never really left him. "The Hammer" is a superior "Rocky"-knockoff that largely avoids the canned sentimentality and emotional uplift of the overfamiliar underdog sports movie genre by surrounding Jerry with a trainer, a girlfriend, and a best friend who bear no resemblance to their counterparts in "Rocky". The trainer is duplicitous, the girlfriend is well-adjusted, and the best friend is a Guatamelan illegal. "The Hammer" seems closer in spirit to "The Rookie" than the six-part Rocky Balboa saga because this low-key charmer never goes for the knockout punch. In a training montage that doesn't coalesce, Survivor has trouble getting out of first gear, since Jerry's eye is more like the "Eye of the Housecat". In the big fight, "The Hammer" once again avoids the "Rocky" template and is better for it. Big, overblown emotions often leaves the viewer with a hollow feeling. It's overfamiliar. "The Hammer" is small in scale, and realistic about the heights that a forty-year-old boxer could realistically reach. From Adam Carolla, you'd expect another boxing kangaroo picture, but surprise, surprise, this is more like John Turturro's "Mac".
Jay H. gave it a6:
Adam Carolla's style of humor is very endearing and quite funny. Pretty good movie, better than I was expecting. Great cast, well written, nicely developed characters and it has an original approach.
Julie H. gave it a9:
A funny, warm story from the underdog's point of view. I don't get the R rating, but it is a movie about a boxer. I loved the characters (especially Ozzy!), and how good the whole story felt.
Heather R. gave it a10:
This movie was very charming and a great breakout work for Adam! Go Ace Man!
