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08/07/08
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The Hammer (2008)
70 %
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 30
Fresh: 21
Rotten:9
Average Rating: 6.2/10
Consensus: Crass and curiously low-energy, The Hammer ultimately perseveres as both an above-average sports comedy and a perfect starring vehicle for Carolla.
Reviews for The Hammer
Like a television show, The Hammer wields that mysterious power to keep you watching even though you know it isn't any good.
04/21/08
To his credit, Carolla carries 'The Hammer' with self-assured ease, hoisting the film on his broad shoulders while making sure, as screenwriter, to leave some of its sharpest one-liners to his supporting cast.
04/09/08
Adam Carolla isn't everyone's cup of tea, but the man can sling around an acidic one-liner with the best of them, and his starring debut is a familiar, but persuasively funny brew of clichés and belly laughs.
03/23/08
There are plenty of opportunities for Carolla to spout wisdom and observations.
03/21/08
Working with utterly predictable material, screenwriter Kevin Hench finds plenty of offbeat humor, and Carolla knows how to make it sing.
03/21/08
I never would have guessed that Adam Carolla, the politically incorrect radio and TV personality, could hold his own in a movie, but here's The Hammer to prove me wrong.
03/21/08
Carolla is winning in The Hammer, which evokes Rocky and just about every other lovable-loser sports movie while showing enough comic originality to hold interest throughout.
03/21/08
A nearly comatose comedy that spends its time just bum-stumbling along, never putting in the work necessary to land a solid joke or develop a winning character.
03/21/08
[Adam] Carolla's grumbly, monotoned, stoop-shouldered pessimism in The Hammer, the first feature he has penned, is actually funny.
03/21/08
Adam Carrola makes for a pretty agreeable leading man in The Hammer, a movie tailor-made to the comic strengths of the radio/TV personality.
03/21/08
While this rock’em sock’em rom com about a middle-aged man’s unlikely return to the world of amateur boxing doesn’t quite score a knockout, it lands a respectable number of body blows -- and belly laughs.
03/21/08
So many movies these days are overworked or overblown: The Hammer feels genuinely tossed-off. It isn't a great movie, or even a consistently good one. Yet it gets to elusive feelings about failure and success, hope and mortality.
03/21/08
It's genuinely funny, oddly romantic and surprisingly engaging for what could easily have been an obnoxious vanity project.
03/21/08
Carolla has a tendency to riff when he should be acting, and the whole project is rambling and disorganized. At the same time, though, The Hammer also has dry wit and unforced working-class swagger, and hits some surprising emotional notes.
03/21/08
Top Critic The script depends heavily on familiar stand-up comedy bits, but it's full of sharp wisecracks and slacker charm.
03/21/08
Latest News for The Hammer
March 20, 2008:
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February 20, 2008:
Trailer & Poster review 
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88%
36%
