A Paint By The Numbers Movie With A Good Ending

Rating: 6/10 (4 July 2019)

"Here Comes the Boom" starring Kevin James is a predictable and generic film that uses too many lame jokes and tired tropes to be ignored, but I enjoy the ending.
The Good. The actors. The thing this movie has most going for it is that its main cast is very likable. Kevin James, Henry Winkler, and Bas Rutten all deliver enjoyable and endearing characters. Not very funny at any point, but a good chemistry and charisma can be felt. And what perhaps is an underappreciated moment of the movie is seeing Greg Germann as the principal give a really sincere moment near the end which flushed out his character. It would've been all too easy to paint him as the villain of the movie who is stuffed up and too conventional for his own good. They didn't go that road and I'm grateful.
The Bad. Sadly, not all actors left an impression. Selma Hayek doesn't need to be in this movie. It's not that she's particularly bad in anyway, but her character is just the generic romantic interest character bringing nothing new or interesting to the character. She inspires Voss (James) to care for the students and looks concerned when he's getting hurt. Outside of that, you could write her out of the movie and it would've made no difference.
The Ugly. The writing. This movie is just too on the nose in too many ways. I like the idea of a teacher fighting to save a music program. They've could've done so much more with that. Instead, the comedy is lazy and generic laughs (if it gets any at all) and it tries to walk the fence between Comedy and Dramady, but never picks a side. So the film has misplaced tone. And as far as laughs...this movie has two good written lines of dialogue and they were both in the trailer. Disappointing.
The Fantastic. The final 20 minutes. So despite all my criticism of this movie, what I must say though is that it works. They build up the underdog so well in this movie that in the final fight of Voss vs. Diedrich, I was totally engaged as if I were watching a real fight. The ending was well-written, well-acted, perfectly placed, perfectly choreographed, emotional, and incredibly engaging. This is what I mean by the movie has mixed tones. If this movie had been a dramady, this ending would've been perfect, instead...it feels like a different movie. But in the film preceding this scene, we had guy gets knocked out by ball, guys slipping and falling in water, James overdressing in goofy outfit for fights, etc.
So if this film had not gone the route of "we want to be taken seriously, but we also need those slapstick moments to remind people we're a comedy" this would've been a pretty good movie. Once again, mostly because of the ending. But instead, the film's tone is too mixed to be anything special.
6/10