Canadian Premiere

Star and co-writer Adam Carolla, may be known for a lot edgier fare like Comedy Central’s trampoline and hop-fueled The Man Show but he’s striking a very different note here with The Hammer. Based in part on his own life, he had this project made independently from his normal Hollywood connections and it shows. It glows with moments of real humanity and quirky wry humour that you’re just not going to find in his more mainstream work.

Jerry Ferro’s 40th birthday has brought his life into sharp relief and it’s not a pretty picture. A once-promising amateur boxer - who quit so he wouldn’t risk his perfect record of underachievement - Jerry has been knocking around in meaningless jobs and relationships, just waiting to eventually getting his life together.

His last connection to the fight game is the evening boxing class he teaches to middle-aged, middle class, middle management types at a gym in Pasadena, where he also works as a handyman. When venerable boxing coach Eddie Bell asks Jerry if he’d like to spar a couple of rounds with Malice Blake, an up-and-coming pro, Jerry reluctantly steps into the ring. Despite a bad near-beat-down, a one-punch knockdown of Blake convinces Jerry that it’s time to make his return to competitive boxing. Thus ends a 20-year layoff and begins an off-beat fish-out-of-water quest for Olympic gold.