Release Date: October 12, 2012

MPAA Rating: PG

Director: Frank Coraci

Stars: Kevin James, Salma Hayek, Henry Winkler, Bas Rutten

Our Rating: A-

Let’s face it: when has there EVER been a good movie about budget cuts that doesn’t happen to be a documentary? The answer to that is never. That is, until Frank Coraci came along with his new film Here Comes the Boom, Starring Kevin James (Hitch, I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, Grown Ups), Henry Winkler (Happy Days, The Waterboy, Royal Pains), and Salma Hayek (Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant, Puss in Boots, Savages).

In Here Comes the Boom, Scott Voss (Kevin James), a Biology teacher at an underfunded high school tries to help out his friend, Marty Streb (Henry Winkler), the music teacher, when budget cuts threaten to shut down the school’s entire music program. With help from Niko (Bas Rutten), a student of Voss’s citizenship night class who used to be an MMA fighter, Scott helps to raise the necessary $48,000 to save the school music program.

On the topic of shot types and cinematography, I really liked the diverse use of POV and slow-motion during fight scenes. Specifically during the fight between Voss and Ken Dietrich (Krzysztof Soszynski), the use of Go-Pro cameras created a very energizing change-up and a look into the blurry and fast-paced moments that made up the fight.

All in all, Here Comes the Boom was a great film in quality, but I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the overall result. One would think that with Kevin James in the lead role the movie would be pretty funny overall, but the ratio of funny moments to serious moments was drastically different than most other movies with Kevin James. I rate this at an A-.