Here Comes the Boom
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: October 12, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
40
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
19
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
63
USA TodayScott BowlesOct 11, 2012
When the comedy connects, it can deliver with funny force Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsOct 11, 2012
Once it gets going and commits to its time-worn inspirational formula, it's not half-bad. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfOct 16, 2012
Knuckleheaded though this faculty-member-turned-MMA-fighter comedy is, there's no denying the plot's lefty credentials, snuck in like Raisinets among the popcorn. Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazineAmy NicholsonOct 11, 2012
Like James in the ring, it doesn't pack a lot of power, but it comes out swinging and sweats for applause. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghOct 23, 2012
Although it's not as bad as it could be, the film is still middle-of-the-road fare for comedy fans who are already firmly in James' corner, delivering the sort of brainless laughs that James is famous for. [18 Oct 2012]
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriOct 14, 2012
So even if Here Comes the Boom doesn't quite work as a comedy (it's not particularly funny), or a drama (it's not particularly poignant), it has an earnest charm that keeps us engaged. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 13, 2012
Here Comes the Boom is stale and vanilla. We know we're in trouble early when the first joke fails. Read full review
50
The New York TimesNeil GenzlingerOct 12, 2012
If you can choke down the implausible notion that the doughy Kevin James would last more than five seconds in a mixed martial arts ring, Here Comes the Boom is a moderately enjoyable, nontaxing sort of comedy. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Stephen ColeOct 11, 2012
A farther-fetched fantasy: In addition to asking we believe our loosely packed academic can play Rocky, Here Comes the Boom imagines a world in which butterball Everyman Scott and the fabulously lush Bella (Salma Hayek) might argue and bill and coo and eventually fall in love. Read full review
50
Washington PostSean OConnellOct 11, 2012
What's missing from this color-by-numbers screenplay is the bizarre touch of eccentric humor Sandler often lets creep into his comedies. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 11, 2012
The pure mechanics of Here Comes the Boom land it in an enjoyable, if forgettable, space. Read full review
50
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallOct 11, 2012
It's all harmless, if not entirely fun. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeJanice PageOct 11, 2012
Kevin James's latest comedy doesn't promise any bing or bang, only boom. Take it at its word. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumOct 11, 2012
A cloddish, harmlessly drecky comedy from the Sandler factory of crude mush. Read full review
40
Total FilmKen McIntyreNov 18, 2012
Cue 105 painful minutes of a fat guy getting punched in the face and falling down. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottOct 12, 2012
Few people will be surprised by how it all unfolds or by how it all ends. This is a movie about lightweight entertainment and heavyweight fighters, not a movie about surprises. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesMark OlsenOct 11, 2012
The film works hard at its inoffensiveness. Throughout, jokes are left on the table, setups never pay off in any significant way. Read full review
40
Village VoiceNick PinkertonOct 11, 2012
Boom was produced under the auspices of pal Adam Sandler's Happy Madison Productions, which has a tendency toward broad-comic morality tales and multiplex populism that often shades into remedial-level pandering. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierOct 11, 2012
All banality, though it delivers some goodwill even as it pulls a muscle trying to get its premise going. Read full review
40
MovielineInkoo KangOct 10, 2012
The first half hour of Here Comes the Boom is so good moviegoers might be fooled into expecting something better than an obvious wish fulfillment fantasy so patently implausible it's almost insulting. Read full review
40
VarietyJohn AndersonOct 10, 2012
Hands of stone meet heads of air in Here Comes the Boom, a sports story so daffy it may as well star Kevin James. Read full review
38
New York PostLou LumenickOct 14, 2012
Low on raunch but even lower on laughs. It also looks like half the lighting crew failed to show up. Read full review
38
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsOct 12, 2012
Loud, incoherent and unfunny, Here Comes the Boom is the sound of American culture imploding. Read full review
33
The A.V. ClubNathan RabinOct 10, 2012
Here Comes The Boom seems to have made it from the pitch stage - Kevin James does MMA to save his school or something! - to the big screen without an iota of inspiration, ambition, or personality seeping in at any juncture. Read full review
20
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovOct 17, 2012
"Here Comes the Bomb" would've been a more fitting title, but props to Henry Winkler for rising to the occasion and turning in a sweet, idealistic performance in a film that otherwise feels like a tawdry commercial for the UFC and MMA. Read full review
0
Slant MagazineChris CabinOct 11, 2012
As a comedy, the film aims low and manages to miss the mark entirely. Read full review
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