The Hammer
The Hammer Image
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Metascore
57 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 12 Critics What's this?

User Score
9.2 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 32 Ratings

Your Score
0 out of 10
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  • Starring: Adam Carolla, Heather Juergensen, Oswaldo Castillo
  • Summary: 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)… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 12
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 12
  3. Negative: 1 out of 12
  1. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Joe Neumaier
    75
    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.
  2. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Matt Zoller Seitz
    60
    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.
  3. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Stephen Farber
    60
    The film hardly could be credited with breaking any new ground, but it has a hangdog charm, much like its leading actor.
  4. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Bill White
    25
    Plays like a pilot for a situation comedy about a 40-year-old carpenter who decides to return to the boxing ring.

See all 12 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 17
  3. Negative: 0 out of 17
  1. DerekG
    10
    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.… Expand
  2. TomL.
    10
    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.… Expand
  3. JamesM.
    8
    I saw this over the weekend and really enjoyed it. It was funny and had a surprisingly deep story.
  4. ChadS.
    7
    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".… Expand

See all 17 User Reviews

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