MMA Fighting - 'Here Comes the Boom' Review: Kevin James Reminds Everyone MMA Is Fun | This Is CineMMA

Episode Date: May 26, 2024

MMA is freaking fun! On the latest episode of This is CineMMA, the MMA Fighting movie review get their funny bones tickled as we watch the 2012 comedy “Here Comes the Boom,” starring Kevin James, Henry Winkler, and former UFC champion Bas Rutten. When disillusioned teacher and former wrestler Scott Voss (James) finds out that a friend needs almost 50 grand to save the school’s music department, he teams up with the eccentric Niko (Rutten) to get himself back into fighting shape in the hopes of making some quick cash. Scott’s inspiring underdog story eventually lands him a chance to fight for the UFC, where the stakes couldn’t be higher. After a season of episodes filled with doom and gloom, Alexander K. Lee, Jed Meshew, E. Casey Leydon, and special guest Mike Heck have their spirits raised by the heartwarming tale, which also might be the most accurate MMA film ever made. How does the movie get everything so right? Would Scott Voss actually be a contender in the UFC? And is Bas Rutten the best MMA fighter/actor yet? Put on your viking helmet and get PUMPED as we answer these questions and more. Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow E. Casey Leydon: @ekc Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Love those tunes. Welcome back, everyone, to another episode of This is Cinema and May Fightings, martial arts movie podcast, perfectly movies that mix-a-marked. but we've had, well, frankly, mixed results with that so far. This is your host, Alexander Cayley. Before I tell you what movie we were talking about today, let me get right to introducing my co-host today with one extra special guest. But first, the man whose takes always leave listeners saying, boom, goes the dynamite, Mr.

Jedmishu. Yep, good. Too busy grooving. Can't talk. Okay, okay. Best intro music in the game, baby. Next, the producer, video editor man, who makes everything. you watch go boom boom pow it's mr e k's me case you live hey hey this song is that saxophone

it just like hits me it hits me i love it that baseline that baseline is no joke either oh it's the whole package it's the whole package and uh the movie this week it takes place in new england uh specifically i believe the boston area so we had to get a man from the area Mr. Boombastic himself. Mike Heck, my best friend. Hey. Hi, everybody. It's great to be here.

Yes, taking the baseline for a walk and a long walk at that. This is incredible intro music. Well done, gentlemen. It's so good. It's so good. So, guys, if you couldn't tell by those nicknames that I chose for this week, listeners, we are covering the 2012 Kevin James' MMA comedy. Here comes the boom.

Our first comedy that we are. doing this season on the show at all, I should say. The only intentional comedy, I should say, we've had some laughs. We've had some laughs during the other movies that were more awkward and uncomfortable, but they were there. This movie was actually designed to make us laugh. I think you had all seen this movie before. As usual for me, I went into this one cold.

I don't think I had seen any of the movies that we watched on this first season of, This is Cinema. Jed, what's your elevator pitch for? here comes the boom. I hadn't seen this movie in a decade, and the last time I watched it was on a plane. So this was a different experience, and we'll get into the benefits

that this movie probably gets by following up a string of real tough watches. But my elevator pitch is simply, this is School of Rock meets Rocky. So School of Rocky, basically. And, you know, I don't know how success. of a movie is, but it doesn't fail, which is nice, and it wasn't the saddest thing we've ever watched, which was also nice.

This was filmed in Quincy, Massachusetts. I don't know if that is the same place where they film School of Rock, but it was a very similar setup. I mean, the vibe is almost identical. Identical. Mike, what can you tell us about Quincy, Massachusetts? And also, what impact did here comes to boom have on the whole New England area when this movie was being produced when it came out, how this movie land.

There's something about Kevin James movies and Massachusetts, because Paul Blart Mall Cop was filmed in the same town that I went to high school in at the Burlington Mall. So I don't know what it is about Kevin James doing Massachusetts movies, but it's sort of his thing. And all of his movies are like the least Massachusetts movies, the least Boston-based movies of all time. It's really crazy. And there were some nostalgic moments in it.

Like, you know, there were certain things that they showed. At one point, they showed the old Hilltop Steakhouse. If you're from Massachusetts and you drive up Route 1, Hilltop Steakhouse was this just iconic restaurant in the area and had this light up cactus that just you could not miss this thing. So in a certain point, I think it's after Kevin James got his knockout win, they drive down Route 1 and they drive by the Hilltop Steakhouse. And I was like, man, that brings me back. It was like 10 minutes from the house I grew up in.

So, yeah, it was pretty cool. I don't know what kind of, like, actual impact it had on the state of Massachusetts at the time. But as a matter of fact, like, I had no idea it was a Massachusetts-based movie until I actually saw it, which is crazy. Yeah. And when we told you. I mean, I didn't. I watched it twice. And just Mike talking about it.

I was like, oh, yeah. Because then I watched it. I was like, oh, there's people wearing Patriots jerseys, I guess it is a Massachusetts movie. Yeah. When we told, Mike, when we told you we were doing this episode, you said, oh, you'd want to take part in it because it's in Massachusetts. And I, like, when you watch the movie, it's not like super Boston-y. It's not super, I don't know. I don't, maybe I'm stereotyping.

I don't need all the characters, like, dropping their eyes, you know what I mean, like for it to be a Boston movie. But I feel like there's some essence of the city that needs to be captured besides local sports teams being represented and used as, like, touch points, you know, for cultural reference. And so I don't know, but I, like you said, apparently he has some affinity for it. I think he's a New Yorker, Kevin James. So he has some affinity for the state of Massachusetts. Maybe it's just a good place for underdog stories. I don't know. But yes, that is the setting.

Other than that, though, yeah, it's not like they have any local sports hero cameos, which you thought they would think, you know, if they're doing a sports movie, maybe drop one in there. We don't get anything like that. There's planning to choose from. But, yeah. Mike, were you a frequenter of the underground? MMA scene in Boston. Because there's a lot.

Linky-Degh fights in what appear to be old stockyards? No stockyard cards. There were obviously like, you know, I mentioned some of the regional fights I've been to, seen like Dan Lozon fight. I was there for the infamous John Jones pack a poet fight. They used to do these. I guess the closest thing I went to was there was this old dog park called Wonderland Greyhound park and this is the venue that they would host these little greyhound races and then occasionally

like ECW would do shows there and like all these sort of grimy independent pro wrestling shows would happen there and then once a month they would just do like MMA competitions like more like tough man competitions where people just show up and they didn't even train or anything they just showed up and was like yeah I'll go fight and then they would just get in the cage or get into a ring or even at certain points they just had wrestling mats down and they would just get in there and fight each other and someone would volunteer to be the referee. So that was very common. The Stockyard thing, never seen it.

I don't remember any fights taking place in a monsoon like the movie here. But yeah, there is definitely sort of a low-level underground scene. And if you were an MAA fan in like 2007, 2008, 2009, and you were around that area, you probably saw some weird fights. Some shady stuff. Casey, I didn't mean to gloss over your first impression. What's your first impression of this film? I get the sense you had a decent time with it.

Oh, first impression. This as we, so we watch six MMA films this season, and this by far to me is, in terms of just being realistic to what being an MMA fighter is and moving up the ranks and all that stuff, easily the most accurate. Easily the most accurate. Every funny scenario that they did in this movie kind of has Kevin James' movies. up the, you know, from the very, very regional scene to, I don't know, whatever, to the, you know, arenas with like a thousand people to the UFC. Those are all accurate stories that have happened. And, yeah, so I think overall, just for the MMA-ness of the movie, easily just by far the, I guess,

well, I'm kind of jumping ahead, but the black belt of all of our MMA movies we've seen this year. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's fair. We can jump right, too. that. So we should tell people, obviously, we are way past the spoiler-free part. If you haven't seen the movie, by all means go out and do so. I've heard it's not, you guys broke my heart, you said it's not on American Netflix anymore? You said it just got like taken on? Yeah,

it's on TV, but it's free. It's on Tubeby. There you go. So you can watch it. It's on two-be, watch it for free. Pause now, if you must. Otherwise, if you'd already seen it, carry along with us. But yes, the first segment of our show, guys, we'd like to say, how MMA is this movie? And surprisingly on the show, we've had a lot of movies that would seem very MMA that actually aren't. So the premise of this film has Kevin James playing a teacher, a former amateur wrestling standout who needs to get raised some money to save his school's music program.

It's a very basic sports movie premise. He needs to make $48,000. So he starts to get to him to try and make money and eventually ends up fighting in the UFC. So with that, Michael, go to you first. How MMA did you find this movie on our belt scale? Is this movie a white belt and movie? Is it a pure black belt movie?

Where'd you land on it, Mike? You can hear the boom going on right now. It is a storming. There is a storm. We spare no expense on the effects on the show. I would say, like, it's not a black belt. It's definitely not a white belt. I'm torn between like a blue belt and a brown belt

because I mean it does it does depict it in a lot of ways like Casey explained it is even though it goes through like very very quickly it does show sort of like how it all works it's not just like oh dude shows up and fights in a hotel ballroom and then some guy finds him and pays him a million dollars to sponsor him and then all of a sudden he's in a UFC fight like we see this guy kind of go through the struggles

he goes in there with specific thoughts on just going in there and losing all of his fights. So, and then realizes he might actually be kind of good at this with a lot of practice and tremendous coaching by the likes of Boss Rutan. So I'll say, I'm going to go with the brown belt. I'm going to go with the brown belt. It's not a strong brown belt, but it's like, this movie just got awarded its brown belt. I'll say that.

There's a lot of really good stuff. And the thing I really appreciate about this movie is, yes, it's MMA, but it's taken as seriously as possible in a movie setting such as this, and this movie knows exactly what it is and embraces that the entire time. Chad, did you land on a brown belt or higher? Where'd you go with this? I went newly promoted brown belt, which is why I'm interested for Casey to call this a black belt, because I know he's had some issues.

For me, there are two tensions at play. One, it's obviously a very MMA movie in a lot of respects where it's not. is in the technique and I know Casey in particular really focuses on that. I think this is some of the worst kind of MMA technique stuff here. And that's not a huge like detractor for me. But when again, you could swap out sort of other things for the way he like this could be dodge ball. I got to make 50 grand.

I play dodgeball instead. That is wouldn't subsequently change the movie. So MMA is not the center piece of the film. That being said, MMA is all. of, it may not be the turkey of the dinner, but it is almost all of the sides, right? It is, you know, you've got Boss Rutan in a primary role. And then you also have a bunch of MMA fighters in secondary roles and just like very clear MMA cameos for the only reason Vandale Silva shows up in this movie at all is for people

who know MMA, be like, oh, look at Vandale, hanging out with Joe Rogan, watching Kevin you like, you get a bunch of those or, oh, that's Javier Cordero being one of the fighters. You get a bunch of stuff like that. So to me, this was a brown belt. It's not all the way to a black. I can understand the black, but I just went for brown. Casey, why is this a black belt in a May movie? Why don't you explain to these guys?

It's to me, okay, I guess from the whole, and I like what Jed said, like, oh, this movie could have been, I got raised $50,000 for a dodge ball. But I think even at the very beginning, they established that this teacher, he was a decent college wrestler. And I think that's, he's a heavyweight wrestler. And I think, honestly, in early 2010s, if you're tough and you have a good wrestling background, and Kevin James is actually an athletic guy, like, I get it.

Like, he could be obviously a really crappy heavyweight, but there are a lot of bad heavyweights who fight at the highest levels in this game. So I actually, I think everything is honestly, I mean, it's comedic and it's squeezed into like maybe like four months, I guess. I'm thinking the movie takes place about it for four or five months, but realistically, this would be over a year. It's actually even less than that. Okay. Well, they said that semester.

I mean, they kept saying we got to do, but there's a line in it. It's a real small throwaway line, but it's when Scott Voss is talking to Stitch. It's like, hey, Stitch, you're, it's such an honor to be like have you work on me, man. I've had a crazy month. Oh, no, no. It has to be more than that because the wife of a. Henry Winkler, we found out they're having a baby to be in the movie, and she is showing quite a bit by the end.

So I think he means that particular month has been crazy. It has been more than a month. I would stay closer to like, I'm terrible. By the way, of course, I'm saying what a woman's supposed to be showing. But that is kind of our gauge for how much time is past, at least like five or six months. But I get, no, they squeeze that for a narrative purposes. They definitely do. In terms of just MMA, I thought it had it all.

I mean, they had real training, real moves. I know we didn't get into the very specific. but that would be honestly boring. But like when you go back to bruised and the, and the, Boudicom was telling Hallie Berry, you know,

bump your hips. And like, it didn't make sense at that moment. But I think in this movie, it was kind of very, like, day one jujitsu, telling a wrestler, telling a wrestler what to do. And I thought that was good for the audience

because I think that's what the audience is. The audience has kind of a junior idea what wrestling is, because they've seen it in the Olympics and everything. and I don't know I just think this was very had all the aspects of MMA and

from the professional sense to the price fighting sense to the training sense to coaching yeah I mean there was some I don't know I was kind of I liked it I liked the I like the MMA part of the movie I'm with you

I mean outside of the we talked about this before outside of the they're very rocky punching where every punch is a knockout I always kind of hate that in movies, but I get it. But in terms of just the wrestling. Huh? Really?

Casey, I'm with you. I just thought. Oh, go on. I'm just so surprised. I thought this was a clear black belt film. I just thought like there's, I don't know how much more like because I think case and I also agreed on Bruges. We gave it like brown belt plus five or six.

Like we wanted to give a black belt, but there's just weren't enough fights in it. There's really only one actual fight. And there's quite a bit of training, which is fine, gave it some authenticity. Also, there's just so much the plot. the plot that like isn't about martial arts. I don't want to go over all the traumatic events of bruised again, but there's a lot that's

not about martial arts. That could be a whole other movie. And just that has nothing to do with M&A. So, so a very martial artsy movie, just not a black belt. So I think the bar for Black Belt was pretty set clear for me. And I just needed more than that. And I think here comes to boom is more. Because like we say, we get the fighter cameos.

We get him fighting in the O.C. We get the minor league. We got a lot of fights. We get a lot of different fights. Different scenarios, different fights. I love that. technique is not really the order of the day here. That's not what they're interested in showing.

They show some training. But I think the montage are these are heavyweight MMA where technique honestly, what do we need? I do agree. I do agree, Jed, with your point that the plot is so generic that it could be dodgeball. It could be, listen, this is a Happy Madison production. Okay, this is an Adam Sandler film company production. It's from Frank Karachi, who has done a lot of Adam Sandler films, not Happy Gilmore, Click, the wedding singer, the Waterboy, the Waterboy, there you go, another sports movie.

It follows a dodge ball. Yeah, it follows a formula that, yes, you could plug in other sports and not change, how to change the film wholesale. But I think there's enough bit of M.A. flavor. And it's clearly such a love letter to M.A. It's no secret. Kevin James is very involved in it.

He trains it. We'll talk more about sort of the behind the scene stuff, his involvement with it. It's such a love letter to it. It's so authentic that I feel like I had to go Blackfault as well. But I understand why you wouldn't maybe go the full Monty with it. But yeah, I think this is, I think the first, this is the, the first movie this year I've given a black belt. Casey, you too probably.

Yeah, easy. To me, it was the easy black belt. Yeah. Fight Valley was close, but not. Did not quite. I want to show out a few more credits here. The movie was written by James and Alan Loeb. And the stunt,

I couldn't find a, who did the choreography. There was no credit just for like fight choreographer, stunt choreographer. There's a whole team. One of the stuntmen, speaking of Fight Valley, the majestic Eric O'Day, who did the fight choreography for Fight Valley. He has quite a life story.

I won't go over it again. People can go back and listen to the Fight Valley episode for Mr. O'Day's, I don't know, wild narrative that he may have constructed for himself. But everything's connected, guys, to Fight Valley. Don't you see? Don't you see? Are you guys not with me? You're not with me.

I feel like you're not with me. Sure. Why not? I'm trying to erase that memory of Fight Valley. Thank you. Let's get to the performances. Normally you go to the fights right away. I want to get to the performances first.

For me, there's only really two. I feel like evaluating. Of course, if you guys want to talk about some of the other characters and actors, that makes sense. But I want to single out Kevin James as a fighter and also, and then, of course, the most prominently featured fighter, former UFC heavyweight champion and Baz as one of the comedic characters. So I want to talk about Kevin James fighting, Bozrton's acting. Let's talk about Boz first. Let's talk about Bosford. I loved him.

He still. I love him. I can't believe he didn't do more, like, get more roles. after this. He did some more stuff with Kevin James after. Obviously, he's friends with Kevin James. Kevin James put him some more movies. But how did no one else see this and be like, this guy has, I'm not saying he has to like be the star of a film, but he

brings so much character. He's so over the time. And we know this about Bosz. Anyone who has seen Bosz knows anything about Bosz. He's a character in real life. Like this is just kind of him turned up a little bit. But it's great. That doesn't always work. Like not everyone can play a version of themselves. And that's really what this is, but really funny, distinct enough from just being

Bos written, like making faces. He's teaching a discost fighting class like i don't there's somebody who was in go with it i thought i just loved him yoga class a spin class yeah yeah it wasn't too much either it was just enough it wasn't like oh i wish he was the main character this movie i'm like no perfect supporting comedic role i think he gets some i think he gets the best laughs in the movie he's just great i don't know mike how much you love boss he was awesome uh he in in terms of actors not named kevin james who's still the movie he's ranked number two for me uh but still very strong number two he's tremendous

I love the scene where he first, because, I mean, we're obviously past the spoiler stage, but when Kevin James is like, yeah, I want to do this M-A thing, boss is like, yeah, just come and fight. And he just goes and fights and loses the fight in like two seconds. And then Kevin shows up to where boss trains or does all the different classes that he teaches the gym. And rolls on the mat with Kevin for the first time. He goes, all right, I'm going to put you in this. And Kevin taps. And then I'm going to put you in this.

And Kevin taps. Wow, that is loud. I mean, it is wicked out there right now. And then it's submission hole after submission hold and Kevin just continues to tap. And then Kevin just basically tells Boss like, well, the only reason it's happening because I'm letting you put me in this,

if I put you in this, it would be the same thing. Boss, like, okay. And then every time puts him in a home, boss like, I'm out, I'm gone. And then after third one, he goes, I'm bored. And he leaves the room and starts teaching his spin class. And like the lights go out in the room and all the lights turn on. and everyone's dancing and singing.

Like, it's just so funny. Like, everything about him is hilarious. And the other scene that I love so much is when he takes him to Sid Yotong with Delagradi and, like, they throw Kevin James into the sort of gauntlet, the ringer. And even Delagrari just sit there, like chatting it up as this is going on. It's the best. Like, it's just the best. And it's like what you would see at Sit Yodong too.

They just throw a guy in there, go through the ringer. And like, yeah, they're kind of watching in the background. But then the two coaches, the two guys who actually know what's, going on or just like, yeah, man, what are you doing this weekend? Ah, nothing much, man. And it's just, it's so good. Like, everything about boss's performance is fantastic. He was such a delight. And it wasn't like, like, he was better than Rogan in the movie. And Rogan's got like a ton of acting credits.

But Rogan comes in, it just seemed like very stiff and laid back. And bossed loose and a goose and just having a great time. It just didn't even seem like he was acting. It was so good. See, that's a good point. That's what I'm saying. Not everyone can play themselves. Rogan seemed very uncomfortable playing Joe Rogan, which was strange. He should have just done Joe from news radio.

That would have been hilarious. She should just become his news radio character. Which is just Joe Rogan. He's a little more like Matt LeBlanky in Friends-ish, if you'll remember. That's kind of how people compare them. I think Joe was just that way before he became a weird middle-aged dude. Yeah. But either way, he's just 20-year-old Joe Rogan.

He's struggling a little bit to play Joe Rogan here. I almost wonder if they should have gotten another actor to play Joe Rogan. He's not great. But Bob is fantastic. That's been great. if they cast as someone else for Joe Rogan. Casey, is this the best, is this the best MMA actor we have seen in the movies we've done so far?

He was cast. He was just casted perfect for this part, basically. They didn't overuse it. Like, say, like Roadhouse, I think overused Connor and turned Connor up too much. They didn't overuse boss and they turned him up just enough where it wasn't like, this isn't real. Or not realistic.

It was just too much. We're just annoying. But I'm glad Mike, mentioned that one, that jujitsu scene where they're kind of here, and we put in your chokehold and get out of it. This is, this goes back of us a bit. This is why I love why I want, I give us a black belt movie because I feel like any white belt that's ever gone to maybe the first couple of weeks in jiu-jitsu and like, and you know your black belt professors, no beating you up and everything. And you're like, oh, well, that's because he's in these deep positions and

you reverse it on him. And then you can be like 99% in on your black belt professor and he'll still get out. And I think that's a feeling that every student goes through, like, oh, man, like technique really matters. And these are like little things. Like, I don't know. I'm, I truly appreciate they put that in the film. Because I think that is very accurate to the kind of the martial art kind of kind of process of you becoming just better at the sport. But yeah, it's great. If people can't tell by now, we're going to use probably the word authentic, realistic, like we're going to use the words a lot with this movie because it really was. It really, it really, so many things rang true. That's another.

phrase. I tell those stories now. If I keep saying rang true, I apologize in advance because I have that in my notes like five times. Like, this rang true. This rang true. So I'm really sorry. In advance. Jed, I'll ask the same question. Is this the best MMA actor? MMA fighter actor, not the other way

around. It's not even close. He is so much better than every other other MMA actor. And like, I thought Misha Tate actually did well in Fight Valley. We had talked about that as she was one of the only things that you could even pretend was decent, boss is exactly perfect.

Like boss is filling a role and doing it exactly right. And I don't think that everything that was written for him was like exceptional. I think the writing in this movie is very mediocre. But he was no perfect. Like he was, I had the exact same thought watching this where I was like, I'm not really sure why boss didn't get more opportunities in Hollywood to do stuff. And like,

because honestly, I kind of thought he would be more. bombastic because that is the caricature of boss rootin when he is doing commentary he is an over-the-top version of himself when he's hawking self-defense videos he's being a ridiculous person he was somewhat restrained here but they used him well the physical comedy gags were perfect like i thought this is like legitimately of outside of what we've covered this is a mount rushmore mma fighter turned actor performance like there are not four better fighter turned actor performances

in what Boss did in this movie. Yeah, I think we're across the board. Love Boss room. Need more Boss room. This movie came out like 12 years ago. I feel like we haven't gotten more. It's just a little disappointing. There's still time. Still plenty of time. Boarding for Flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes.

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That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. Jed, I'm going to stick with you. Guys, let's quickly talk about Kevin James' performance as a fighter. How did he fare there? I want to say he was, he himself was in his late 40s when this movie was put together. His character is specifically stated to be 42 years old and at least something like 20 years. I don't think he was in his late 40s because Kevin James is what, 56 now?

I looked at it. Yeah. This came out 14, this came out like 12 years ago. It came out in 2012, I believe. Yeah. Yeah. So he was in his late 80 years ago. he's almost 60 he's almost 60 and but they and they shot that he whatever whatever yeah he's 59 and this movie was shot maybe 13 years ago yeah so 46 46 47 years old he's in his late 40s his character his character though is 42 expressly stated to be 42 years old jett was he believable more importantly I guess was he enjoyable to watch how did he stand up for you as a as a stunt guy as a fighter he's both because I think the

smart thing that this movie did. And if I won't give it credit, I think the thing it deserves the most credit for is it understood where it was and what it was. And this wasn't a movie about Kevin James is going to come and be the greatest fighter in the world. This is a movie about Kevin James is trying to lose fights because he's just trying to get fights to make money.

And so to Casey's kind of previous point, it's heavyweighted to MMA, it's fine if he's not good. He doesn't know how to fight. And he certainly isn't. But Kevin James is athletic enough to at least kind of pass the baseline of doing this. And whenever he looks bad fighting, it's what's supposed to happen. That is what is scripted. So it's not unreasonable that he can't do.

The only time that I ever was like, maybe we shouldn't have tried that was in the final fight scene when he hurts Christoph Zanzki and is like, goes for the jumping knee. and was like, maybe that's not the move James needs to pull off. But the rest of this is fine. And then I didn't realize this. Kevin James actually is an athlete, and that's why this works out. I did not realize that he was a successful high school

and to some extent collegiate athlete. And that also he wrestled on the same high school wrestling team as McFoly, which is a weird thing to learn. So, and then like, oh, like he was a college running back in like a collegiate wrestler. Like he, yeah. Some of this makes sense. And so the only quibble I would have realistically with it is that for a collegiate wrestler, which is what he is, there was almost none of that.

And so that just struck me as weird because like Casey, you train and stuff, if you ever go into a gym and there's a collegiate wrestler even one 20 years ago, that dude knows how to do some shit. Like there is some baseline that is very, very difficult to overcome. And we didn't even sort of play in that world, really. And so that was just, but that's really more writing thing. But otherwise, I thought he was perfectly believable for what he's supposed to be. Yeah, I want to go a little behind the scenes for a second here.

So there's a poster in Basruten's apartment's character, Nico, Nico's apartment for WFA King of the Streets in 2000. That was at the form. Yes, it's Bas Rutan versus the great chemo, Kimo Leopoldo. Of course, the scientist changed to say Nico versus Kimo. that now that fight didn't happen chemo was replaced by chemo failed a drug test he was replaced by Ruben Villa Real

and who was in Basruton's corner for that fight but won Mr. Kevin James so there's a little like this he's in it he's in this for real like this is a real thing and that's that's kind of where this bond was made just so you know before I forget to mention it by Kevin James being an athlete so after they shot this I think it was already released It was around the same time when Mayhem was fighting Bisbing on the tough finale.

And at that time, I was doing behind the scenes videos of Mayhem. Kevin James was spent a lot of time in Vegas that week. And as the prep, Kevin James came in the workout room and warmed up with, not the fight night, but like pre-fight week, warmed up with Mayhem in the workout room. So I got to see Kevin James move around. And the dude can move. He is like, he can't, I don't want to say Roy Nelson, but he kind of has that like, you look very out of shape, but you're surprisingly not. He is that, he's that type of.

He's a genuinely quality athlete. It comes across in the movie. It definitely comes across in the movie. Yeah. And by the way, we'll talk more about Mayhem Miller, aka Lucky Patrick Murray later in the show. Don't worry about that as a little tease for you. We'll talk about it. We'll talk about it and some of the outside of the movie antics.

My guys want to get your thoughts on Kevin James. Did he do the New England area? proud for characters supposed to be from that area. I guess. I mean, it's not really much to add to what you guys just already said. Like, he did a great job. He did it perfectly for what it was supposed to be. It wasn't too much.

It was just right. Everything about it was fun and funny and just kind of what you expected from Kevin James. So, yeah, as far as like New England, there is no New England to this movie at all outside of certain just visual effects. and Mark Delagrotti talking a couple of times. Other than that, there is no Boston to this film at all. Shouts to Mark Delagrotti, like, had to actually do some acting, wasn't bad. Not saying that he was good.

He wasn't as good as boss, but he did not take anything away. And they, like, kept putting him on screen. I was like, oh, all right, there we go. He was, I believe his real life wife was also featured in the movie. So shout us to her as well. They do have dinner at the Delagrott. family home and I believe she's also featured. So nice work for a group.

It was deeply amusing to watch this movie and have the mix of, all right, so here are the MMA cameos and here are the like Kevin James, Adam Sandler group of comedian. Yeah. Those dudes who show up in those movies all the time being like, here's a ref or here's the drunk guy in the crowd. And then here's Vandalai Silva,

just a lot of, ooh, I know that guy. Also, Kevin James's brother playing his brother. We should note. I don't know if you guys didn't know that, but that if you thought, wow, that guy playing his brother really looks a lot like Kevin James. Oh, okay. Yeah, he has done. And he's his brother.

He does it in all of the things Kevin James is in. Sometimes he's his cousin. Every episode of King of Queens. He's his cousin. Sometimes he's his cousin. Sometimes he's his cousin. This is how I learned, though, that Kevin James's name is not Kevin James. No.

It's Kevin. I'm going to say this because this is Kevin nipthing? Kevin Niffing. And he chose the name James as to honor his favorite, like, school teacher. And he plays a school teacher in this. So there's so many layers, guys. Yeah. So this is a nice.

So this movie, you know, I think he's very happy to play a teacher in this sense. Let's go right to the fights. Oh, actually, you guys made a great point about how what makes this movie work so well is that they take such a modest approach to what his goals are. As we said, this is a classic sports comedy. I need to raise money to help someone. and we get some I want to know did you guys feel like they did a good idea of I said I did a good job excuse me of explaining like how well he was doing financially maybe they didn't at first after a while he did

kind of he started to start showing up like handing out checks and hold hard cash but it was a bit hard to tell like how much he was progressing right I'm not crazy nothing I mean it wasn't like it wasn't like that trope in a movie where here's the visual image of we've got to get a hundred grand to save the school and we're coloring in the thermometer as it gets up. No, happy Gilmore. Happy Gilmore. The novel. Yeah, exactly.

I love that. I wanted that. I wanted that. I didn't think it was necessary. It was just like, okay, he's clearly making progress. But no, it was not explicit in the, you're $843 away from a bowl or whatever. So let's get to the fights. His first fight does not last very long.

We'll just show him with this one quickly. You say he didn't show any skills. Who did he? I don't know the actor. I don't think know if it's a name actor or fighter. But yes, he goes for a takedown right away and gets knocked out in about two seconds. And maybe one the most, talk about ahead of its time. So this was 2012.

They did the Ben Asken fight. Sort of. This was a legitimate counter-me, not a flying knee into a dude who is shooting on you. But essentially it was the same thing. It was over in the first two seconds. The wrestler I'm going to shoot in and then he hit a flying knee. I was like, when I saw it, I remember when I saw this originally, I was like, oh, that's funny, but that's not super realistic.

And then we saw it at the highest level. Ah, it is real. I'm just saying, I'm just saying. Yeah. So we get a very hilarious scene where him and Marty played by Henry Winkler. I'm sorry, we haven't talked about Henry Winkler enough. I know, I know Mike, Mike loves him from Henry Winkler. Let's talk about him now then, actually, before we get to those.

The scene stealer for you, Mike, the known scene steelers is the Farty played by Harry Winkler is the music teacher who is the hero of Kevin James, who Kevin James decides to help out when he sees how much his work means to the children. And I was head of the very first fight. They come out to here comes the boom, trying to psych the other guy out. He's wearing this Viking cosplay gear. It's very, very funny. It's very charming, very funny scene. And then he gets need into oblivion. But let's take this moment, though, to appreciate the efforts of Henry Winkler, who is the distinct co-star of this film.

Mike, go ahead. He still, I mean, he steals the show in Waterboy, and he steals the show in this. He's so good. Just everything he does is tremendous from when Kevin James is selling him on, you're the best bus duty guy that has ever lived, just the facial expressions, as he's trying to tell Kevin James' character that his wife is pregnant, and he's like in his 60s, to him playing acoustic guitar at the airport, singing, here comes the boom in Henry Winkler style, to,

convincing Kevin James that this Neil Diamond song is like the perfect song to walk out to it. He's just yelling he's got to kick him. He's going to punch him. He's got to get him. It's tremendous. I think the funniest,

the scene that I forgot about that made me pop the most was Henry Winkler forgets the stool and then they go to round like in between the second and third wrap. I'm not sure what my job is. Yeah, and he's bent over as the student. It's such a great bag.

It's so good. So good. Oh, he's so good in the movie. He's tremendous. He's so freaking funny. Everything, anytime he was on screen, I was like, this movie, I'm enjoying this so much. But when Henry Winkler got on the screen, I was like, this is the best. I'm having so much fun.

He brings so much heart to really any movie he's in, especially this one. And again, Mike, I'm glad you didn't join us in some of the other movies that we watched this year. That was the last two we watched, the Jose Aldo Biopio. I'm glad you were meant to hurt. because there was no such levity or joy in any of those films. And it was, I would have loved a sprinkling of Henry Winkler in there. I just, or any sort of comedy, any sort of comedic character, because there was talented actors in those movies.

I just didn't always have them doing anything funny or inspiring or just glad to have Henry Winkler around for this movie. One quick thing. I love the comedy of it. But one thing I thought the film did correctly is that it still reminded you that, MMA is still dangerous. This isn't just a comedy. They're not just like, like, these, because he has the line.

I can't remember the situation, but like, uh, someone says to Kevin, Kevin, Kevin James, how's your week? He's like, oh, whatever, but these three migraines, these three migraines a week say you're wrong because it's just a quick note. You're butchering this line. Oh, I am. I am. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, but the point, say it again later, but the point is, boss is talking to him and he's like uh it thinks right before one of the fights is like it's okay to be afraid use it channel it forget about that last knockout it didn't even happen i think jim's like yeah yeah those three my cranes a week say you're wrong it's like such a good lot it is but but but i'm talking about like yeah yeah it is but um but it's just important the movie has this good balance of it's funny it's still for families but yet it's still on a reminder like this is dangerous and which I think is important. Like,

MMA is dangerous. Yeah. I have to fall 30 more times. I don't think my body's going to hold up for that. Yeah. Yeah. That's what's so great about it. Win some.

I'll have to fight less. That's what's so great about the initial premise, though, is that like, you're right, you guys said before, he's not trying to win fights. They're just like, okay, doing some math. If he makes $750 to $1,500 a fight,

maybe if he does enough, like even just for show money, he can help, you know, gets on that $48,000. And then, and then as Jed just said, wait, if I win, I get double. Wasn't that going to, that might help us even more.

Shouldn't I win? We'll have to fight less. Isn't it wild that even back in like 2012, as this movie has released, Kevin James like, you see what this guy's doing in the UFC? He's getting paid $10,000 to lose. It's the same.

Maybe 12,000 now. Decade later, 12 years later. Hey, but they do get 50 for their win, so it's a 10 and 50. Yeah, which is not how the UFC Or now, frankly. Or did promotional newcomers taking fights on short notice get put up in a suite overlooking the Vegas street?

I don't remember. I put that in my notes. I put that as the most unrealistic part of the movie. There's zero chance the UFC would give them a suite at the MGM. All expensive pay, because they're getting to a food fight. That's why include each other. So clearly they're not paying. That's not the most unrealistic.

The most unrealistic part is that they let him walk out to his students band music. Nobody gets to do a walkout like that. That's ridiculous. Okay, that seemed by far as the most unrealistic. Where's my note I have for this? All right. So we were jumping around a little bit. But Joe Rogan set it up.

Magical Joe Rogan said it up. Hold on. I called him. You have Joe Rogan's phone number? This is 2012. In the film. Weaven James has a love interest played by the always delightful Salma Hayek. She plays Bella.

I think she's also a teacher, but also the school nurse. I don't know. She's both or something. I don't know. The school has budgetary problems. She's probably multi-cast. Both. So, yes, there is a love interest there.

And by the time he gets his fight in the UFC, they have, you know, their friends, their relationship. And she calls him and to tell him they've lost all their money. The school, some school executive has been embezzling it. So. I actually really like that part. part. That was fine. And then to fast forward, like I said, to the next day, she arranges to have Henry Winkler's musical group that children show up and get, they get like 30 seats for the kids so they can perform a live musical act of the UFC. This is so crazy. So how did this happen? Because

this is the day before. That's not the question we need to ask. Hold on. Let me break this down. So she assumed he wasn't going to fight. She tells him there's no point in fighting anymore. The money's all gone. So she doesn't think he's going to fight. And then he says he's going to do it anyway. So at that point is when she has to immediately enact her plan. We're less than 24 hours away from Fight Night. She has to call Joe Rogan, as you said, how, how, I don't know, he must have, he's public listed, I guess. Call Joe Rogan. Get what looks to be the entire band together. All these kids and less than 24 hours notice, hey, at telling their parents, I'm taking your kids to Las Vegas. These are minors. These are minors. I think they have to, I would assume,

they bring their own instruments. They have to be prepared to sing the song. Holly, holy, which they might know. I guess maybe Henry Winkley taught it to them. They've been working on it probably. Sure. It's, it's, I had to rewind to see if it was a song being working on. This has to be cleared by the UFC, perform live on pay-per-view. I don't think they had time for a sound check or anything, which again, they're performing

in an arena. They nailed it, too. They nailed it. This makes no sense. You're not asking the important question, though, A.K. The important question. How much fucking money did that cost? because they could have financed Henry Wink to get 30 students over, like,

Red Eyes to Vegas from Boston with shipping the instruments. That's probably a $45 grand right there. Joe Rogan used some of his future Spotify money. He's like, don't worry about it. He used that money to pay Henry Winkler and then we're good. Hey, that's Joe Rogan's issue. Joe Rogan is incredibly. Maybe there's a lot of frequent flyer miles on somebody's parents' credit card, like lots of them.

A lovely seat. And it plays out really well. It just doesn't make it. While it was incredibly unrealistic in the UFC, I have seen shows in Japan and Risen where they've actually, like the fighters are also, they teach, they teach it to have their own dojoes. And they'll have like 50 students at the front for their on stage while their professor comes out or, you know, their instructor comes out to fight.

So it's been done in MMA, just no chance in the UFC. And not this way. Like this was, you know what? Anyone at home? Who's going? Oh, shut up. It's a movie. Fine.

It's a movie. Fine. We'll get back to that last fight. It was fine. There's two other notable fights. He fights Rafael Cordero. Do you guys realize that was him? Yeah.

I looked at it. I was like, this guy looks like Raphael Cordero. And I'm like, oh, it's Raphael Cordero. His second fight. This is the fight in the rain. A lot of accurate stuff. He gets kicked in the nuts. He gets kicked in the nuts.

He gets kicked in the nuts. No point taken. Spot on. Spot on a little way. It's down between rounds. he's he's gassed after five minutes i thought that was so perfect i'm like yes like this is like for a guy who doesn't train regularly this would be nearly impossible fighting five minutes is very long yes yeah even even fighting defensively as he's told to do it first you would just be you'd be dying that's five the longest

minutes this guy's life it's he's he's he's the stool scene he has a stool he just lies on the mat he's so he's like i need more fighters to do that by the way if i'm fighting i don't want the school you guys stand over and talk down on me. I'm just going to lay here and recover. Then it starts storming. The mat turns into a slip and slide, which is awesome. And Casey, you said this is, you could find this fight online. Yeah, just go to YouTube and Google like rain MMA cage and it happened around that time.

It was a king of the cage. And you'll see the referee wearing a poncho. It's been twice in King of the Cage. Yeah. Once it rumble on the rock, I believe. Also, AK, we did a missed fist on a, like a Georgian MMA card. Not your Georgia. No, like the nation Georgia.

It happens, and every time it has happened, it's been hilarious. Yeah, so good. It's so good. Fight three, Jason Miller, Jason Minham Miller playing Lucky Patrick Murray. And I do want to ask you guys right away, do you remember Mr. Miller's, I guess Mr. I don't want to offend him his appearance on the MMR with Ariel Hawwani to promote the film. Mike, you're shaking your head. You're shaking your head.

It's the second worst MMA hour appearance behind Joaquin Buckley. Yeah. No, I was on BTL this week. Joaquin Buckley has never done wrong. That's what you said. Yeah, it was rough. So anyone who hasn't seen it, it's out there. It has like, this was a dark time in Mayam's life, too.

I was just, yeah, yeah. That there's a little more to it, but yeah, it's not a good appearance. It hasn't been a lot of bright times in it either, but. Anyone who hasn't seen it just look up Jason Miller at Mayauer. I think it's the most of you, Jason Miller appearance on the Mauer. It is he's in character as his character in the, movie lucky Patrick Murray and he refuses to break character and seems very aggressive with Ariel. It's incredibly, it's an incredibly uncomfortable 15 minutes.

Yeah. I joke about the Buckley thing, but that was the biggest takeaway. Like that was certainly the most uncomfortable interview that I can remember on that show. Like just just feeling like Ariel was either going to get hit or he just wanted to get out of there and just some way, shape, reform, but trying to still salvage it, it was, yeah, it was a tough watch. Oh, Ted, you never watched it. was up with Jason.

Yeah, it's pretty, it's pretty rough. But Mike, what did you think of it in the movie? What did this whole fight scene? It was great. Like, he comes out to here comes the boom and does the song. And he actually walks it out better than, he actually fit the song better than Kevin James did, which I thought was pretty fun.

That was insane. What an insane thing. Kevin James, biking helmet and the shoulder. I mean, that part's funny. That was good stuff. Yeah, they hit the dancers and everything. Yeah.

He's on the blue. It was very... The best Jason Miller was in the entire fight was the end of the fight because Kevin James knocks him out and then Kevin James pukes on his unconscious body and then it wakes Jason Miller up and Jason Miller looks at Kevin like, what are you doing? He pukes in his face.

I think Kevin... But Jason Miller makes the best sound in the whole movie just goes, and it's just like a perfect like fake almost got a vomit sound. And I was like, that was funny. I laughed pretty hysterically at that. that. It was good stuff. And this is all happened. Well, not throwing up on your opponent, but fighters throwing it in the cage.

Oh, yeah. We've seen that. Oh, on their opponent? They've actually thrown up on their opponent. Oh, all right. All right. I stand corrected. Also, like, I actually think earlier this year, dude, got decued for vomiting.

Didn't vomit on his opponent, but didn't get decued during the fight. I think, uh, patty pinlet peaked after the erosa fight, I think in cage wars. I'm pretty, he peaked during one of those eight years. Sounds like that might be right. I think it was the erosal one. Yeah. That was. I know that as juvenile.

I did not see that coming. So it, like, totally shocked me. And it, it sent me. Like, it sent me in tears of laughter. Because I was like, oh, he's going to come over and like, oh, one green is going to do the. Hey, man, good fight. Good.

I was just like, I lost it. Wait, what? He started eating the applesauce that was left in the car. That didn't, uh, yeah. Because also there was a part of my head because, like, I don't do this intentionally, but my brain starts, okay, so how's this movie going to work out? And when it's like, I made my own applesauce,

I was like, okay, so they're not going to get the money from fighting somehow, but Henry Winkler is going to make like dope applesauce, and they're going to sell the applesauce. And this is the check off applesauce. You gave this. And then instead, you gave too much credit. Yeah, instead it was here.

And then you get the car ride back, who makes their own apple sauce other than the Amish? I mean, that's a good line. That was a good line. Henry Winkler steals that scene. He's just sitting there. He knows his wrong. He goes, he just simply just goes,

mistakes were made. Who is other than the homage, makes their own applesau. And then leaves it in the back window of the car. I'm so glad we're laughing. We don't get to laugh on the show enough. We get to laugh at absurdity, but we don't actually get to laugh at humor. It's so good. And that's why this movie's fun.

I've always recommended it because, There are genuine laughs. They're like genuine laughs in this movie. Some movie makes are professional comedians. Professional writers. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not saying,

no one's saying this is like Godfather or, you know, or even Raging Bull of Combat Sports films, but for MMA films. Oh, you're right. Yeah, that piece of shit, raging bull.

Raging Bull movie. Yeah. So we go to a montage, guys, later on in the movie. And here we get a bunch of M.A. A trio of M.A. Fighter cameos, one might say. We get, he submits Chels Sonan with, I think, like an Americana.

He fights Satoshi Ishii and the entire match just collapses. I'm going to assume that's a no contest. Also, has happened in M.A. Has happened. Yes. And he defeats Mark Munoz to be ground and pound. And that's where he's scouted by Joe Rogan and Imangelo Silva. Now, I know you got, who was it telling me before the show?

They loved Sonan, a little Sonan. Oh, me. Yeah. Casey, he had Adli. What did that Chale do in this scene? Oh, just he gets taken down and gets Americanaed and it's a quick tap and it's all one shot. They do it well, just one long shot and Chelle just jumps up and it's all like, I didn't tap, I didn't tap. It's just it's just a very chill thing and a very, in a very, and a very, very like what, like inside baseball.

Like you have to be like such a MMA nerd to understand that joke right there. You have to be watching this show. Yeah. And like, yeah, just, I just like, I was kind of just impressed that they would throw such a inside MMA joke and, and such a broad kind of, you know, general audience of a move type of a movie. So, and I enjoy those things. I was just, I was, I liked it. Apparently he changed my mind. Blackball film.

Definitely. Mike, would you? Mike, you bump it up to black felt out of this discussion. I mean, let's make it unanimous. This is like, yeah, five stars. Whoa. I had bruised his black belt too, but there's just enough inside baseball stuff. Okay.

Yeah. Yes. He makes it to the UFC and then he fights. Ken Dietrich, Lord Dietrich, I think, is his nickname. Is he Lord Dietrich? The executioner. Excuse me, the executioner. Ken Dietrich played by a Canadian.

Christoph Soszinski. Always good to see him. Can I just say, yes, Mike. Can I just say he was the perfect guy to cast him? Yeah. Just perfect. It looks great. It just.

Yeah, and even when you first see him as an, yeah, even when you first see him as an MMA fan, you're just like, this dude would play a terrifying character in a movie. Like, he's just, everything about it, the tats, the, he just, he looks like a fighter. Like, he looks like the quintessential fighter. If you ran into that dude on the side of the road, you're like, oh, shit, he punches people in the face for a living. There's no doubt of my mind. If he says he's an accountant, I'm not going to believe him.

This is what he does for a living. I thought it was just like the perfect guy. Ken Dietrich is the most. It's like a Mike Tyson's punchout character name. That part, that made me laugh so much his name. Just because you are introduced to him and he is fighting Brian Stan, who gets to be Brian Stan because his name is Brian Stan. And they're like, we're not even going to fucking pretend.

We are, Ken Dietrich, everyone can say that one. It's so good. Brian Stan. Yeah. Mike, what did you think of the fight? What did you think of the final fight? It's like perfect, I guess, for what this movie was.

He just gets the shit beat out of him. He has a little heart, looks at the girl, looks at the kids, gets a little, you know, gets that little bit of oomph. And then it ends with the freaking power bomb. Like everything about it is just. The ronabom, yeah. It's just good. Yeah.

It's just good stuff. Like, it was just well done. It's exactly what this movie, it should have been for this movie. There's just no other way to do it. Do you think Herb Dean maybe could have jumped in there earlier? Do you think Hokie Pookie Herb maybe let this one go on a little too long, Mike? I mean, this is exactly why this is perfect. This is exactly a Herb Dean stoppage in the best possible way.

He's in, he's out. I don't know what to do. Okay, all right, all right, right. I've seen him stop fights for, less than the absolute murderizing that happens to Scott Foss. It was a 2016 going into the 30-14. Those are both 10-7s. Those are back-to-back 10-7s.

Most of that ground and pound was coming off the forearms. I will say that fight pretty objectively should have been stopped when he walked to the wrong corner. By almost any definition, that should have been enough. But, you know, outside of that, it's fine. You get lost in the ring. You get lost in the area of which one. But he's stumbling to the wrong corner is the HGC.

He gets showtime kicked. He gets showtime kicked. This is a, we are at a 30% showtime kick rate of the two out of the six movies you watch have the showtime kick in it. I hope that's enough. I hope we don't see this anymore movies. It's a great movie.

This movie had a showtime kick. It had a rona bomb. It also had the Dan Henderson flying dive into guard punch. Yes. It led with a Superman punch. I mean, you were just getting all the highlights. I did not know Christoph Sinsky was just going to fight her, frankly. I've never seen him show any of this.

I mean, a good fighter, not this kind of dynamic offense, if I'm being honest. Oh, and another really accurate part. Oh, Fiatakiyama? Oh, yeah. They caught it. They clinch up and start bailing on each other. Another very accurate part of this movie I liked. It was if you've ever gone to a fight and you have a friend who's fighting and they're getting their butt kicked.

And unfortunately, you're sitting right next to the guy who's all like, kill him, kill him. You're just like, dude, bring it down. That's my buddy. And I appreciate that. You know, those are those moments as a fan. Like, oh, I don't know if I like this sport anymore. And actually, it's what turns a lot of people away because, like, when you care about the fighter and you just watch them get just slaughtered for multiple rounds, it sucks. And which I guess made the ending so kind of, you know, more cathartic, I guess.

But just little things like that. As I'm watching, I'm like, oh, I've been there. I've been there. I just liked it. Yeah, the ending, Kevin James wins the fight. He is fighting off a arm bar, triangle arm bar, lifts. Ken Dietrich up. It's very dramatic, very, very well filmed, I thought, and just slams him down for a

K.O. Again, it's a movie maneuver. It was my favorite move in the movie. Tell that to Rampage. Not surprised. Well, yeah, if you want to throw it in the legal head, but go ahead. But I thought the slam of this movie, I'm that guy, guys. I thought the slamless movie was so well done and it was probably my favorite move.

I thought they just nailed it. Was that the only realistic way for him to win? So here's the thing. Outside of a lucky punch, which they've already kind of dead. I was going to say, we mentioned the embezzling and they're saying, oh, all the money he won before is gone. And then he's told, by the way, if you win this fight, you know, you get 50,000. And he's like, well, I guess you better go out and win then. Because they were originally just going to go and go, I think it's killed, gets killed, whatever.

Get 10 grand. It'll finish it. So I thought we were going to get another rocky ending, which you've gotten in a lot of sports films. And we just got in bruised where he loses, but he wins fight of the night. That's what I thought. I thought like, when this at 48 grand at the beginning, I'm like, oh, that's fight of the night money. He's going to lose and win fight of the night. But they didn't go that way with it.

So, Jed, would that have been better? Would that have been better? We have a category coming up and I'll just spoil it now. Anything you would change? That is the one thing. I was 100% with you. I liked the embezzling thing because this has been the guy who he was, the teacher who embezzles the money is the guy who he feels more connected to than Greg, whatever,

who's like the obvious shitty heel of, oh, you're terrible and budget cuts. He's like, yeah, I'm on your side. I want to. And he keeps giving him the money and that dude takes all the money. I thought that was like a really good setup to, okay, now it's not just about losing this fight. You got to win.

and I think the movie I don't think it ultimately changes too much but I think I would respect the movie a lot more if it was if at some point previously it had set up that you can win money for a fight of the night so this doesn't feel like

totally shoehorned at the end and he loses the fight but he gains respect because we already got that moment in the final round when Dietrich agrees to touch gloves heading into the final round oh he's earned his respect and he goes out and he puts on a good effort and he comes up short

because he shouldn't win this fight, but he gets the 50,000 fight of the night bonus. I thought that would have been a better way to do this. If I could make one change to the movie, it would be that. I think so too. Did you guys like the super, super happy win ending or should they have just gone Rocky?

Mike, what do you think? I mean, it would have been super duper creative if they did it that way, but then I don't know. I just feel like from like an editing perspective and from like a viewership perspective, for the casual viewer that's watching a Kevin James movie and has no idea what fighting is, then that's like the perfect ending. But like all of us in the theater would be like, oh, I hope he gets the $50,000 performance bonus. I guess we get to wait for

the scene when Dana White goes to the press conference. Yes. Is it like right? They just set it up. Perfect data cameo. You know what we have? Kevin James is a top 20 heavyweight in the world. Well, Dick is. We will. We'll be able to go. Casey real quick. If they had to build the wind ending, do you think the slam was the best way? Would you want to see him do something else? Like a catch him over the rear and it could choke out of nowhere? Did the slam? Was that the way to do it?

I like the slam because you're in a bad position and then he just kind of used heart and toughness to get out of it. And at a lot of levels at heavyweight, that's all you really need. You know, so it's just kind of going back to that. The fight bonus was more realistic. The fight bonus is more realistic, but it would be hard to explain. to the general audience. Yeah. It's a little more.

I think that would have honestly been easy. They just had to lay the foundation. They could have like the loss scene of like, yeah, how much money you get? You get 10 to win or you get 10 to fight and 50 if you win. And even if you don't, if you have the best fight, you know, you get a $50,000 performance bonus or whatever. Actually, now that you say it, now that you say it, you just have Kevin in the locker, I'm all bummed out. And then stiff as hell Joe Rogan walks in and be like, I just talk to Dana White, man. Here's a check for $50,000.

for your efforts. You're a tough son of an umbrae. Because that's the other thing. You don't necessarily have to do fight of the night bonus like that. It works for us. It can just be a hey, you gave a hell of an effort, and you have lost, and you are sad because your friend loses his job. But actually, Joe Rogan, instead of flying all these fucking kids out here for what the family he goes in as like, hey man, we know your story. Dana could have cameoed in this movie. I mean, like, hey, man, her all about your story from It was a hell of a performance.

We'd love to have you back. And here, here's a $50,000 check to get you where you need to be. And I think that would have hit. I think that would have landed so well and been a better for the story as well. One of those magical discretionary bonuses we're always hearing about, right? Daniel always like this discretionary bonuses. There you go. Could have been one right there.

Yeah, it happens in real life. Really, very quickly. So you mentioned, Jed, technically, he probably would get a ranking. I think he landed the NBA fighting global rankings after taking out Dietrich. I think you got to go. Not quite. No. So he won't just because there is a brief line in there where it was like, Dietrich was

expecting to fight a top 20 dude. So like arguably Dietrich isn't actually even ranked. He's just like a guy. But like, yeah, he's just want to fight in the UFC and now we'll keep fighting in the UFC for more money that he's getting paid as a middle school biology teacher. This would have been during what? John Jones is light heavyweight run. This is 2012?

2012. This is around John Jones time, right? No, before John Jones. I think Kevin James could take him. I don't like his... Yeah, but would John fight him, Jed? This is the question. You know, he's insane. I was like, he's insanely tough, as proven by that last fight. I think he's in my top 30, too. John does fight old people. As for Ken Dietrich, I don't like his chances of bouncing back to this one. I don't think he ever makes the top 20 after this. I think that's just D.

rails him. No, this is a Merced-Bectich style of your career. Wow. Wow. Wow. Damn. Damn. I mean, I saw this more as like a bulk-off, you know, when Volkov lost the Derek Lewis, you know, book-off is top 10, top five, you know. I mean, now with Derek Lewis is Derek Lewis. So I'm just saying. Derek Lewis is Derek Lewis. And I mean, I got all the respect in the world for Kevin James pulling off in a Rona bomb on a heavyweight, but I don't think he's Derek Lewis. It's probably a good thing. I think it's implied he's probably done fighting. Like, he's I don't think they say he's going to fight anymore. They could have always thought.

It looks like he retired. They do suggest that. Yeah. Probably a good idea. Okay. Only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first...

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Product availability varies by region. See app for details. Did you guys notice what event this was at? 178. 178. Or 76. Was 76? 176. Do you know why that's funny? Was that the canceled one?

176 was canceled. So this was, when this movie came out, they're only around like UFC 120. Wow. Or 130, 17. 120 something, 130 something. So they're just looking, they picked a random number like, let's just go so far ahead. So we don't overlap with anything that's going to happen in the next two or three years. Sure enough, they actually picked the one event and ended up getting canceled.

So people, if you're like, what happened? Not the one event. One of. Multiple events have been. Damn, that was weird. I'd say that one of them got canceled. The other one got canceled. But yes, 176, if you want to watch it, the only way you can,

is why watching here comes to the boom because it didn't happen in real life. So just a total. Jane Carwin versus who did the, Junior Santos? Junior Santos. The main event. That's who they. Chain versus, yeah, Shane Carwin, JDS and the main event. That was the main event.

That's what they said. Oh, that was the main event. I'm sorry. And that was the actual event that happened at the time. That was 131. The event that canceled was going to be Chad Mendez and Aldo 2. It was also happened in California, Casey. and did not have those injury.

I think Aldo of injury, I think, and then it got postponed to it. But again, the card was so weak, they just canceled it. But it exists in this film. So just total random coincidence. Let me tell you, looking at this fight card,

it is astonishing to consider that this was too weak for them to get to an event. Go ahead, go ahead, Jay. With some of the shit we get for events. Jose Aldo Chad Mendez is off. Sure, this isn't going to be a pay-per-view. You've got Jacques-Rae versus Musasi would have been your co-main.

Gray Mander, Fabriceo Camois, sure. Betch Gohia, Shana Bazler, Juicea Formiga, Zach McCowski, James Vic, some dude, Lorenz Lark and Derek Brunson, Bobby Green, Abel Tujillo, Tony Ferguson, Danny Castillo, and you did there use Anthony Rocco Martin,

Alex Garcia, Matt Dwyer. This is a substantially better fight card than like 67% of what we get today. Oh, my gosh. Oh, it's better than 301. This is better than 301. Damn. Oh, yeah.

It's better than $297. The times are different. When people tell us, you guys need to stop complaining, just be grateful. I should point out that this wasn't good enough to make a fucking card. And it is so much better than, like, paper views this year and every fight night this year. Guys, we've touched upon some of the funny quotes of the movie. Jed, I know you said there's not really one you could pick out, especially since we try to say, fight-related quotes.

There actually weren't that many. Okay. Well, first, I'll go to you first. Before we do, though, so this is my debate. Do they say the name of the movie in the movie? Like a hundred times.

I mean, technically, no. I don't know if playing a song. I think this counts more than Hallie Berry's bruised. The song is obviously boomed by POD. Very popular song at the time. It's the title of the film. It's played both as Kevin James introduced it,

and Mayhemmello's entry music. And Marty sings it. This is true. He does. A character in the film does sing it. But no one says it. What do you want? What do you want?

What makes you happy? Before he kissed, before he kissed some hike again, he should be like, here comes the boom, baby. And I'm like, oh, you did it. Roll credits. Roll credits. This is not as, like, not as clear cut as Roadhouse. I think this is more so than abused. So we are saying this movie did pass the test.

It does say the name of the movie. I think it clears the more. It says it. Singing is not saying as Martin himself. You hear? Here comes the boom. Yes. 30 times in this movie.

Many times. More than they say Fight Valley and Fight Valley. And that's a lot. And that's a lot. So many. All right. Fine. All right. Outside of the movie Candy Man, this might be the most times.

Yeah. The name of the film. Beetle juice. In a film. Beetlejuice, too. There's two. This is on the Mount Rushmore of the amount of times the name of the film was said in set-sill. Is this the hill you want to die on AK?

I'm just asking questions. I'm just asking questions. That's all. I'm that guy. I'm just asking questions. Jed, you are that guy. What was the line from there? The only line, so there was something that jumped out and I was trying to think of it,

and I finally got to it. And this was during a fight, and it just made me laugh. Like, it was one of the many times this movie that I was. I actually laughed out loud. And it was when we were talking about when he goes to the wrong corner and he's stumbling around and the coach looks up

and it was like wrong corner bud and Kevin James who is clearly concussed is just like, that was a good round. It's sent me again. He's like, yeah,

it was a good round. Mike, Casey, anything to offer for you guys? That coach was Ryan Parsons who is... Who was Ryan Parsons? I was Ryan Parsons. Other cameos in there,

I'll tell you the quote a little bit, but when they were doing that round robin kind of shark tank to him, that was Mel Minner, who's a very famous Muay Thai fighter and the coach, Danny, Danny, I can't remember his name, but he was a professional boxer, who's also trained MMA fighters, and I don't know what the other guy was.

So there were a bunch of, just dropping those other cameos they had in there. But my favorite line was. Mark Munoz was also in this movie. Oh, yeah, Mark Munoz, yeah. Was Kevin James, I don't know the situation, but he says, I have a class to teach, and then I have to roll around with a sweaty guy from Holland. That's when principal, terrible human, whatever his name was like,

you're giving the school bad name, he's like, no, that was his transformative moment of being lazy dirtbag to I'm actually growing as a human. Okay, yeah, true, true. I don't know, Mike, anything jump out for you, quote-wise from this film? I mean, just the Henry Winkler, he's going to kick him, he's going to punch him to the Neil Diamond song is just the best. I think like the other moment, this isn't really like a quote, but when Kevin James knocks out Jason Miller's character and like Bosserun seems like he wants nothing to do with Henry Winkler and then all of a sudden, like, he just embraces

him. It's just a magical scene. It's so good. The two guys who steal the movie have a shining moment at one point. It's just great stuff. Henry Winkler is quite good in this movie. The one voice thing too is super realistic because I've seen so many times where I've seen coaches that yell at each other.

You can actually watch the fight. You'll see coaches go, shut up. You know, because I'll be yelling something. Just like little thing. Albow him. Albo him. It doesn't need to elbow him. Well, it's working for that guy.

This is movie. It was really good. The one line that jumped on to me as kind of funny, I don't think it's supposed to be, is after they kind of, they have their sweet Las Vegas set up and they're like starting to throw food at each other. And then Kevin James goes like,

look, we represent the UFC. Let's act like it's not our first time to the dance, okay? And I'm like, oh, Kevin James, if you only knew, if you only knew, this kind of behavior wouldn't be a blip on the UFC's radar. Really, nothing is, frankly. So I thought that was unintentionally funny. But guys,

Let's review the movie. We're laughing and we're smiling when having a good time. I think we all have pretty positive feelings about it. But let's make it official. Let's make it official. Let's see how it ranks among the greatest MMA movies of all time. We already have a top five, solid top five list. No one would dispute it.

Let's see if. Are we doing the list of all the movies right now? No, no, no. Let's do their fists first. We've got to do our fists. So, Mike, we're going to get this movie one fist or two fists each. So this really essentially will be out of eight fists. We got a little drum roll.

Just get your fist ready, Mike, get your fist ready. Jed, we can see both your fists already. That's right. I'm preparing to put it down. Wow. Not yet. Not yet. Not yet.

Here we go. Drum roll. I'm trying to put my feet up too. Oh, I'm the only one who did one. We almost got the eight mister. What a shocker. Oh, I'm glad.

Well, I'm glad I didn't. I'm glad I didn't. I feel like we have to save our six out of six or eight out of eight fist rating for, you know, something still to come. I feel like there's still many more movies to review. But seven out of eight. Can get eight fists? They could.

Seven out of eight, we should say. I guess, Casey, we can go to the ranking. It's a dominant performance. No debate here. It is. Let's count it down, actually. Let's count it down if we have a chance here. Okay, hold on.

So this is, we should tell people, this is our season finale, essentially. We just kind of wanted to try this out, see how the show works, see if people like it. We do want to come back with more episodes another time, but we want to start for the six episode first season. Maybe by the end of 2024, we'll start again. maybe starting next year. I don't know. I've heard there's a lot more than six MMA movies. People are telling me all these M.A movies.

And I'm like, I think I'm going to have a season that's exclusively never back downs. And I can't. The franchise. Yes. So coming at number six, which is again, really close, number one. I mean, it's the sixth greatest martial arts movie of all time. No shame in it. Casey, what do we have?

Ah, yes. Fight Valley. The Rob Hawk, Women's Empowerment Classic. The actual movie. A wonderful, wonderful movie. Again, free on YouTube, everyone. When you're done, listen to this podcast, go watch Fight Valley. It's on YouTube for free.

Again, this movie is free on YouTube and has multiple instances of full frontal nudity and YouTube doesn't even notice because no one has watched it. Beware. Do not watch one that one with the kids. Casey, what do we have coming in number five? What's the top five? Did we agree on this? Okay, this is number five?

This is in the order that we met, yeah. Yeah. Number five. Hallie Barry's Brew. Again, a very well-made film. A little sad, a little bit of a down. A little bit of a doubt. And a great fight scene.

I still think even after this, I loved the fight scene with Dietrich. I think we can all agree, Halle Berry and Valentina put on the best Emmy fight scene of all the ones. Undeniably true. Yeah. So good. So good. Number four, Casey. Misforteke de O Mundo stronger than the world, which I should stop trying to pronounce it.

The Jose Alto biopic. Again, another mostly well-made film that is just devoid of any joy. which is truly tragic when we're talking about Jose fucking Aldo, who has brought so much joy to our lives and always spice with joy. Not in that movie, but it was okay. Casey, number three. Ah, yes, the Amazon Prime picture that we thought would lead for most of the year. I think it got knocked down to number two right away.

The Jake Gyllenhaal, Connor McGregor-star Roadhouse, a smash shit. Come in number two, what's our runner-up for the greatest? her up. Blood and bone. Wait a minute, guys. This means we have a new number one, the greatest M. M.M.A. movie of all time is here comes the boom. Massachusetts wins again.

Stand up, Boston. It's not even close on the voting. If we go by the numbers, yes. I believe blood and bone was three out of six fists. This is seven out of eight. So mathematically, yes, it's going to be hard. It's be hard to dethrone. Here comes the boom.

So seven out of eight, that's the minimum. to be considered, or I guess five out of six, no, that's technically less still. We'll figure out the math. Wait, okay, did you give any movie two-fist? I did not. I have not given any movie two-fist. I'm saving it. I'm saying, because I'm told, just a T thing.

Well, I'm not done talking about here comes the boom yet, but I do want to say, I'm told that Warriors are a pretty good film. I'm heard there's some movie called Never Backdown. Never Back Down. Never Back Down. It's an unbelievable film. Red belts? I don't know.

There's a lot of movies out there. There's a lot more martialized movies. Some documentaries I think you're going to want to try out. I heard The Rock's got a new MMA movie coming out sometime in the next year or so or around 2025. I feel like that's going to need to be talked about. So here we go, guys. But that after our first season, the six greatest M&A movies of all time. And I think we nailed it.

I think we got it right. These are the only six movies you need to watch if you want to watch Warriors. I guess go ahead. Supplementary viewing. But this really is the MMA movie experience right here. So, Mike, did we get it right here? comes to the boom number one? Compared to these other ones?

Yeah. It's like not even a conversation. You didn't see Finnelli. You didn't watch Friday. You're lucky man. I know I didn't need to see it because I figured it would be number six, like with a bullet. Blood and Bone is fun as hell in its own unique way.

Roadhouse is ridiculous. I've not seen the Jose Aldo movie, but just based on your critiques and the way you guys have talked about it and the way Guy has always talked about it. it. I'm surprised it was number four, not number five. Honestly. The only issue... Four or five could battle each other.

They actually did. We, four or five and Roadhouse were all tightly contested. Yeah. The issue is Hallie Berry's movie is objectively the best of those three movies. It is also the movie I the least want to watch because

it is the saddest thing ever put on celluloid. It's, yeah. Yeah. Go ahead, Casey. Did you So when we watched Bruised, I did a lot of complaining about Halliberry striking. And this one scene in here comes a boom when Selma Hayek and Kevin James are kind of, you know, play fighting.

She punches just like Hallie Berry did. That kind of like that when they keep the arms right here and they just do this. I was like, oh my gosh, she punches like Hallie Berry. She could, she used to do MMA. But there it is, guys. Here comes the boom. It's just such a great note for us to end this season on. Just actually laughing and smiling and having a good time and enjoying M.

M.M.A., Boss Rood and Henry Winkler. Kevin James, very good at this kind of thing. Honestly, I think this is a good role for him. Salma Hyac. Really, everyone involved. I did a really good job. I'm just, I'm happy, you guys. MMA is supposed to be fun.

MMA is supposed to be fun. I'm so happy we did this last because, like, I'm also willing to acknowledge that maybe some of my like enthusiasm for this movie is just that the other stuff we have watched has been some combination of bad or horrifying and so like this was as i was thinking about it after watch this like i think we watched three real movies and three fake movies for this season like i like legitimately like bruised here comes the boom and um roadhouse those are all professional films those are movies made by professionals in the industry and you can tell with things like cinematography and filming and stuff like that,

like the audio mixing. All of that is done by professionals. One of those movies is horribly bad, and it is Roadhouse. That movie is trash, and I'll never believe that it's not. It can be fun, but it is terrible. One of those movies is good, but is horrible to watch and bruised. Here Comes a Boom is just, it is a good movie, well-made. This is not the start of a franchise.

It's not going to do triple. it's, you know, budget at the box office. But this is exactly the kind of movie that back in the early 2000s or the late 90s could be a moderate success at the box office because it was made by professionals and it's fine and then have a second life in DVD and on FX or T&T or USA for the next 20 years and just be a movie everyone kind of sees at some point. It's fine. This was a good movie well made and it was fun.

And that was like super necessary for us given the last, I mean, frankly, the whole season since Blood and Bone. Yeah. Casey, you happy with that list? Yeah, I'm happy. This is, looks good. I was, I'll say if these movies, blood and bone kind of shocked me at how entertaining it was. And bruised was probably the most disappointing of all the movies. I agree fully.

This is also exactly the order in which I would recommend either a fight fan or a non-fight fan to watch these six. Like, yeah, you can do worse than, you know, 95 minutes or whatever here come to the boom is, or 90 minutes of blood and bone, two hours of Roadhouse a little long, however long, Masforte Chequemundo. Bruze, don't watch it, you'll just be sad.

Fight Valley, I've never heard of it. I would suggest not watching it because that can't be good. I would say you watch Fight Valley first and then the order you just said Jed, and then you watch Fight Belly again. That is so you're close. We're kind of saying the same thing here, essentially. Sure. Mike, any final thought on here comes to boom before we get out of here.

Just watch it. You'll have a good time. If you've never seen it, just go in there and just understand that it's Kevin James, the guy from King of Queens in an MMA film that also has Boss Routen, Vanderley, Silva, Chill, Son, and Henry Winkler, Mark Delagrouty, and Joe Rogan, of all people. Just take that for what it is. Don't overthink it, and you will have a tremendous time.

Thank you, Mike. Thank you, my best friend. Thank you, Jay. Thank you, Casey. Thank you, everyone who tuned into the first six episodes of This is Cinema. Hopefully, many more to come. Again, we don't know what's going to come next. Maybe Warrior, maybe never back down.

Maybe fighting, Kenning Tatum. We got to end next season with Warrior because it's clearly going to be either one or two. I may watch it. I may watch it before then. It's probably a long over here. Warriors is like a legitimately good film. So we got to get some of the trash out before we end on the year. These are all legitimately good films, guys.

Fight Valley, free on YouTube. Go watch it now. For Jedmishu from Mike McKeysley. I have out, Brandon Kaylee. This is Ben. This is cinema. Thank you, everyone. And we'll see you around.

Love y'all. Is this the band from the school playing us off? Yeah. Kevin James would have won in the first round if he had our music You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew With gifts that say I know you

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