Here Comes the Boom (2012)

Kevin James plays a teacher who becomes and MMA fighter in order to save the music program at his school and by extension, his friends job.

This is one of the better recent Happy Madison films (That's the company Adam Sandler started and it's been cranking out some real stinkers lately especially the Sandler films) It works thanks to a great cast headed by James, and includes Henry Winkler, Selma Hayek and a bunch of real life MMA fighters. Everyone seems to be having a great time and it carries off the screen and into the audience.

What I like about the film is that unlike many recent comedies it isn't trying to be great, or disgusting or something other than entertaining. Kevin James and his fellow actors simply are trying to tell a good  story and not necessarily trying to grasp the brass ring. Somehow I don't think they were trying to make say the next Hangover or even say the next Adam Sandler film. I think they were just hoping to entertain the audience. 

Perhaps my opinion of the film was colored by when I saw the film, a couple days after Hurricane Sandy smacked the crap out of the East Coast of the US. Needing to escape the horrifying pictures and constant news coverage I simply ducked into a movie house and went to whatever was playing next. This was playing next ...and for just under two hours I was somewhere else and not thinking about gas lines, smashed trees or wrecked houses. I was transported somewhere else. Any film that can make me forget real world horrors even for a little while is okay in my book.

High art? Hell no. It is however diverting fun which is enough.

Worth seeing when you need to go on a mental vacation.