Adam Carolla is funny. There, I said it.
Like almost everyone my age, I spent a portion of my teenage years listening to Loveline on the radio. What normal teenager wouldn't want to spend late nights listening to a national radio show that featured sex advice from a doctor and a blue-collar smartass? Besides Loveline the other thing that Adam Carolla is known for is The Man Show, which if taken at face value (which is probably a mistake) was a misogynistic show focused on beer, boobs, and dudes being dudes. If these are the merits on which you base Carolla you probably think that he's dim, crude, and definitely not worth the time of anyone with a sophisticated sense of humor.
I only recently reconsidered Adam Carolla as having any kind of relevance in todays culture. I first started thinking that he might not be that bad because of the common references to him on Bill Simmons' podcast. Although Simmons can sometimes be a little too much of a dude, he's pretty intelligent and an incredibly entertaining read. He and Carolla share the same social circle, and if Simmons likes him that much Carolla can't be that bad. Then as I got into a grove of doing extended experiments at my lab that involve lots of hand/eye work but not much thinking (once everything is set up) I got into podcasts. I heard form a friend that Carolla's podcast was supposedly pretty funny, and after listening to a few I was hooked.
He's still pretty crass (because he now has a podcast instead of a radio show he can curse and talk about raunchy material to his heart's desire), and occasionally makes some unintelligent comments, but boy is he funny. The interviews and guests aren't always my cup of tea, but when he gets ranting on a subject, it's pretty unbeatable. He may bring up political or social ideas you don't necessarily agree with (especially if you're a sensitive liberal type) but he brings a much needed sense of humor and common sense to the discussion. He's not politically correct, and doesn't pander to anyone's needs. You might think he's being rude, but more often than not you will end up thinking 'hey he's right' (or at least see where he's coming from), but only after you laugh out loud a few times.
But this post is not about his podcast, it's about his 2007 movie, The Hammer. In The Hammer Carolla pretty much plays a less successful version of himself. The character is an out of work carpenter (Carolla has a fair amount of skill in this arena) who is an ex-amateur boxer (as is Carolla) whose only joy in life is the few hours of boxing classes per week he teaches to beginners. It has no other notable actors, and was almost released straight to video if Carolla hadn't ponied up a few thousands dollars to get it released in a few cities, just so it wouldn't have to say 'straight to video' on the cover.
Does this sound like something you would want to see? Probably not. However it has a 71% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and Nathan Rabin of the AV Club gave it a B+. These favorable reviews may be a result of the fact that no one expected anything of this movie, but the film still got a better reception than most any comedy coming out of Hollywood.
The movie doesn't have a high concept, and it's often very easy to predict where the plot is going. However the plot is decent and the jokes are evenly distributed throughout the movie to give it a light and low key feel. There is some drama, but nothing ever gets too serious or feels stressful. The movie is just shy of 90 minutes, which gives Carolla enough time to make the jokes he wants without having to draw out the plot. It's a comfortable, humorous effort that brings the essence Carolla's observational humor to the big screen.
Many modern comedies have problems with the pacing of the plot. They tend to just be a series of skits and jokes in the first 2/3 of the movie that end up getting dragged down by the 'necessary' plot at the end. We have to see characters we don't really care about do things we don't really care about, and it really kills a lot of movies.
This is the fatal flaw in the movie that The Hammer most resembles, Norm MacDonald's magnum opus, Dirty Work. Carolla has a very Norm-like delivery and tone, and they're both ugly dudes with curly black hair (although Carolla wears better fitting shirts). Dirty Work feels like a bunch of semi-related SNL skits at its front half, all which are really pretty funny, and a bad sitcom at its end. Once we have to care about the semi-serious plot everything falls apart. Although The Hammer doesn't reach the high points of hilarity that Dirty Work does, it paces itself much better and feels like more of a complete film as a result. I'd probably recommend Dirty Work over The Hammer due to the fact that it's funnier, but I appreciate Carolla's effort.
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