The Hammer

[stormy]

There are a couple of reasons I really wanted to see this movie, and believing that it was going to be good was not one of them. For one, I really like Adam Carolla, from Loveline to the Man Show he's been pretty consistently funny imo. I also really liked the story of the movie, not the plot, but the story about how it got made.

Adam started working on The Hammer in 2002. It's semi-autobiographical. It's about a 40yo carpernter stuck in a bleak job who ends up with one last chance to do what he loves before resigning himself to his shitty station in life. A hackneyed premise? Sure. But, this is Adam's story. He was a carpenter and boxing instructor in the valley who through wit and circumstance went on to a good career in radio and television.

Unsurprisingly, no studios would fund the movie. So he made it himself. Then no studios would give him a fair deal to release the movie, so he released it himself too. He is even on that shitty Dancing with the Stars show this season just to be able to promote it (since they obviously can't afford a national ad campaign). I wanted to support a labor of love from one of the comedians I enjoy, and that's why I saw it. But did I think it would be good? It had a chance, but after the suckfest that was Artie Lange's Beer League I had no preconcieved notions. I was prepared for the worst.

The Hammer exceeded my best expectations and is a really good movie. There are laugh out loud moments, a fun story, and great characters who you really believe in. One thing that people might think when they hear this is Adam Carolla's movie is that it is all dick and fart jokes. It isn't that movie at all. It has real heart, and never falls back on dirty humor as a crutch. It actually aquits itself well as an indie film, providing a poignant view of real life of the Los Angeles area lower/middle class, while still remaining funny and giving us the old 'Hollywood ending'. My girlfriend liked it too, but she told me afterwards that she wanted to FF through the boxing parts. She liked the love interest that they obviously threw in to appease the woman folk.

The acting is also better than the run of the mill indie film (and shits all over Beer League). Adam has a really sardonic tone to his voice, and when you hear him rant on the radio, or read off a cue card on the Man Show, you wonder how he could possibly be a good actor. However his performance is really solid, and much better than I expected of him. He goes into a comedy riff a couple different times in the movie, but he is trying to impress a girl and she is kind of rolling her eyes at it so it's not very forced. I have to mention Ozzie, who steals the movie. He plays Adam's best friend, who is a Nicaraguan contract worker. Image Pedro from Napolean Dynomite funnier and with more lines. He is hilarious, and I just read this morning while I was looking up info to write this that HE IS REAL. He is really Adam's friend from the old construction days, and he is playing himself.

So I think people should check this movie out. Read through the movie site, watch the trailer, and see if you think you'd like it. It's a labor of love and it shows. I highly recommend it.

http://www.thehammermovie.com/

[A Robot Bit Me]

I am absolutely dying to see this. I can't find it in any theatres around here, though.

Also, his show has been absolutely hilarious this year after a nigh-unlistenable 2007, which was wholly the fault of Danny Bonaduce.

[stormy]

I tried listening to his morning show when it first came on but didn't like it. He was good, but everyone around him sucked. There were like 2 other guys on his show with him that were trying to be him and it didn't work at all. I should give it another shot.

[Konketsu]

This sounds pretty interesting. I'll have to check it out.

[cigsthecat]

I tried listening to his morning show when it first came on but didn't like it. He was good, but everyone around him sucked. There were like 2 other guys on his show with him that were trying to be him and it didn't work at all. I should give it another shot.

Yeah, now is the perfect time. Since he got that redheaded douche off the show it's really hitting it's stride.

I'm going to see this tomorrow because Carolla's going to be in town at a couple of the screenings.

[Hero]

I listen to it with my friend on the way to work. Owns all the other talk radio shows in CA.

[Tain]

I totally forgot that he had his own show now. I used to love Loveline.

podcastin'

[Super-Eggroll]

Movie looks good, and has a lot of his rant-jokes buried in the dialogue.

I used to listen to The Adam Carolla Show every morning before they yanked the station out of Phoenix. The whole FREE FM concept went belly-up, but I'm still bitter about how they decided to break the news to us.

For 2 days the assholes played Paris Hilton's CD over and over again with some Andy Dick-ish DJ doing promo spots in between loops before finally announcing that they were changing formats to yet another BS Hip-Hop station (Blazin' the Valley's hottest hits!). Akon, Chingy, and Fergie on repeat now. All day.

[cigsthecat]

Well you can listen online. They even have a secondary stream that basically plays Carolla's show on a loop all day with Crank Yankers where commercials would be.

[Seik]

I'm such a big fan of Carolla that I've found myself watching bits and pieces of Dancing with the Stars. It's pretty hilarious seeing him dance and the behind the scene segments they show are hilarious.

edit: Also can someone link to the secondary stream where they loop Carolla's radio show? I see where I can listen to 97.1 live, but I don't see Carolla's stream....