Former collegiate wrestler Scott Voss (Kevin James) is a 42-year-old, apathetic high school teacher. When budget cutbacks threaten to cancel some of the school’s programs and lay off its music teacher (Henry Winkler), Scott creates a scheme to raise money by moonlighting as a mixed martial arts fighter. Everyone thinks Scott is crazy – most of all the school nurse, Bella (Salma Hayek). In his quest, Scott gains something he never expected as he inspires his students and becomes a sensation that rallies the entire school.

I was deeply disappointed with this in all honesty. Being a huge fan of the Fonz for so many years even he couldn’t make me chuckle during this. The concept is great and is backed by the UFC for extra substance for its followers and at the core of the film is a decent storyline about the underdog fighting for a cause (ok it’s not original but the audience loves it). Littered with comedic scenes that I personally didn’t find funny, I found myself drifting off after the hour mark which is a shame because the finale is pretty spot on and exhilarating and if they had focused more on the core of the story, this could have been so much more. One for Kevin James and UFC fans but not one I’d recommend to the crowds unfortunately.

Shot digitally on Sony CineAlta F35 cameras and presented on Blu-ray with a MPEG4-AVC coded 1080/24p transfer in its 1.85:1 original aspect ratio, Here Comes the Boom looks pretty much flawless on Blu-ray. The colour palette of the film starts off quite cold with muted colours and remains like that until we get into the arena where the transfer shows off some superb detail and clarity. The transfer is crisp throughout and does not suffer from any post processing

Presented on Blu-ray with a English DTS-MA 5.1 audio track, I found the audio mix to be a tad low on this which resulted in bringing the volume up a notch or two from my usual preferred listing settings. Once that was adjusted i found the audio track to be solid throughout. The speakers sprung to life during the fight scenes with bursts of loud rock music filling the sound stage and crowds cheering, split surround effects were delivered so often as well as some ambient sound effects. I didn’t notice much usage of the LFE track in this mix though but it accompanies the film well. The disc also carries German and Italian DTS-MA 5.1 and English audio description audio tracks as well as the following subtitles. English, English SDH, German, Hindi, Italian & Turkish

Deleted scenes (16 minutes) – a collection of raw time coded deleted scenes cut from the final film. Presented in High Definition

Gag Reel (2 minutes) – a very short and brief gag reel from the production of the film. Presented in High Definition

Here Comes the Cast (6 minutes) – a look at the main cast of the film and what they brought to the production. Presented in High Definition

Gino vs Ritchie (4 minutes) See the Associate Producer Gino Falsetto take on Kevin James stand in Richie Minervini in the UFC arena

Back to School (4 minutes) – a look at finding the right school building for the production. Presented in High Definition

Learning how to Fight (9 minutes) – A look at the fighting techniques that kevin James and co had to adjust to during the shoot and the involvement of the UFC. Presented in High Definition

Three Amigos (6 minutes) – A brief look at the casting of, Henry Winkler, Mark Dellagrotte and Bas Rutten. Presented in High Definition

The Pros (3 minutes)- MMA fighters briefly discuss their background and techniques whilst looking at their involvement during the film’s production. Presented in High Definition
Disco Street Fighting (2 minutes) – Bas Rutten teaches the audience how to Disco Street Fight in character. Presented in High Definition

Previews (2 minutes)- The disc rounds off with a Sony Blu—ray promo and trailers for Hotel Transylvania, Sparkle and Grown Ups.

Ultraviolet Digital Copy – included in the package is a download code for Here Comes the Boom to stream it to portable devices

Sony have put together a decent little package for Here Comes the Boom. The extra features whilst a bit brief are to the point and show how much fun they had behind the camera. Audio and Visuals are very good apart from the observations noted above. Sadly the film is lacking some inspiration and guts as the film makers decide the focus more on the comedy aspect of it instead of the core story about the underdog fighting for a good cause. Sadly for Here Comes the Boom, the Boom never arrived for me