Here Comes the Boom [Blu-Ray]

I imagine Kevin James was sitting around in his living room with a handful of his buddies watching a UFC fight on pay-per-view (or the far superior Warrior) when he came up with the idea for Here Comes the Boom. Seemingly, the concept was to merge his love of mixed martial arts (MMA) and his financially successful career as an actor while inviting his friends along for the ride. Even better, he didn't have to put too much thought into the project if he simply whipped together a script with writer Allan Loeb (Rock of Ages, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps) that blended 1995's Dangerous Minds with 2004's Million Dollar Baby. James plays the role of Scott Voss, a high school teacher that wants to fight for his students' right to a music education by raising money as a novice MMA fighter, which, in theory, sounds like an adequate variation on the Adam Sandler comedy formula. Given James's girth, this Zoolander juxtaposition of unlikely weirdness should technically work through the sheer irony of plausibility. But, oddly, Kevin James took the dramatic elements of the story seriously. The jokes are strained and mostly involve homoerotic fight positions or Salma Hayek trying way too hard to be zany, which is exacerbated by the awkwardly contrived fight scenes that are more concerned with making James look vaguely buff than capturing any actual intensity. This leaves James's on-screen love interest with the school nurse (Hayek) to drive most of the comedic goofiness, which isn't saying much. Instead of going for laugh-out-loud comedy, Here Comes the Boom features an ensemble cast of players that have been featured in most of James's past productions (King of Queens, Paul Blart: Mall Cop and Zookeeper), as well as a few of his UFC fighter pals, seemingly doling out a series of bland inside jokes. Unfortunately, the audience isn't in on any of them. Included on the Blu-Ray are deleted scenes and gag reels, none of which are very funny and could have easily been interchangeable with the actual scenes of the movie. There are also segments on MMA fighting, as well as a feature on how Kevin James filmed his fight scenes. Too bad they didn't address the obvious shot composition used to make James look as trim and muscular as humanly possible.