Boomed to fail

Rating: 5/10 (7 September 2013)

If you are an Adam Sandler fan then this might be for you as it stars Kevin James, a Sandler regular along with Henry Winkler and director Franck Coraci who has directed several Sandler films.
James plays a bored Biology teacher, Scott Voss who is spurred on to raise money for the music teacher job that is under threat.
Voss does some night teaching which gives him an idea to do some Mixed Martial Arts as an easy but painful way to raise the necessary funds.
Although Voss looks out of shape we are told that he used to be a decent wrestler in his youth.
You then get several bouts of hilarious beatings, so brutal that even Rocky Balboa would had quit whilst shouting 'no mas.' Someone should had mentioned to the co-writer and star Kevin James that MMA is regarded as being even more brutal than boxing.
It is an amiable and sporadically amusing movie. James is likable with his heart in the right place who steps up to save Winkler's job. There is a side plot where he romances Salma Hayek (we live in a universe where Hayek is single, lonely and available!)
The plot is simple, the fights are brutal where Voss should be left paralysed, especially with the last fighter Ken Dietrich the performer playing him (a real life MMA star) is magnificent.
The disappointing box office showed that this was only a half developed idea.