Many many years ago, my friend and I went to see Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael. We knew nothing about this movie other than it starred Winona Ryder (my favorite at the time) and Jeff Daniels (my friend's favorite). To be honest, we weren't expecting much: the previews we had seen seemed kind of stupid, no one we knew had seen this film, and the only reason we were going to go see this movie was because we were both bored out of our minds that afternoon. So, it was perhaps because we were expecting so little that we ended up enjoying the film so much. 

I can barely remember now what the story is about -- something about an absent mother and a teen girl who feels lost -- and I've been tempted to check it out on DVD but I don't dare. I'm afraid that I'll end up hating the movie and it will ruin the nice memory I have of that lazy afternoon in Berkeley.

I mention all this because Adam Carolla's The Hammer fits into this category. I remember a the preview being mildly amusing but the movie came and went in the theaters so quickly, I barely remember it existing at all. One day, when I logged into my netflix account, The Hammer popped up as a recommendation. I figured, what the heck, might as well give it a try. This is not a great film but it is a thoroughly enjoyable one. I've never cared for Carolla -- I thought his shtick on "The Man Show" as well as on "Loveline" were tiresome at best. His morning radio show wasn't so bad but definitely nothing I would go out of my way to listen to. 

Perhaps because the film is scripted, it seemed to really contain Carolla in such a way that it was possible to appreciate his humor without being completely annoyed by his whiney voice or his man-child antics. As horribly cliche as this might sound, The Hammer had a really good heart -- it was a film that could sometimes throw really mean jokes but they never got overly obnoxious (unlike Carolla's radio stuff).

The basic premise is simple: Carolla is an unemployed construction worker who moonlights as a boxing instructor for people who want to learn basic self-defense or just get a nice aerobic workout. A trainer looking for someone to take to the Olympic tryouts spots him and offers him a chance. Hilarity and mischief ensue. The film is about as low-budget as you can get. The boxers take a road trip to Phoenix (why they wouldn't fly is beyond my understanding). The film was made entirely in Los Angeles (not a big deal) but they can't even shoot it so that it actually feels they left LA (during the Phoenix trip). 
Despite all that (or maybe because of it), The Hammer was still an amazingly fun way to kill 90 minutes. 
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