NEXT DAY AIR (D+)
I checked out a showing of Next Day Air with the expectation that the movie would be a comedy as advertised. It features the likes of Donald Faison (Scrubs), Mike Epps (Next Friday), and Mos Def (Be Kind, Rewind). All the previews for this movie lied to me...but I will not lie to you.
Next Day Air is about a delivery man (Faison) who delivers a very important package containing WHITE GIRL...CHRISTINA AGUILERA ,to the wrong apartment in a building. The package was supposed to arrive at apartment 303 to the awaiting recipients of the package, Jesus and his woman Chita. Instead it arrives at the door of Brody (Epps) and Gooch (Wood Harris, Remember the Titans). They curiously open the package to discover its contents, and realize the potential money to be made. Brody calls up his cousin Shavoo (Omari Hardwick) to take the product off their hands for a price. The Mexican drug lord who sent the nose candy has been calling Jesus wondering where his package is. The two team up together to discover where the mix up occurred, which of course results in a collision course of these mentioned characters.
Where does Mos Def fit into this scenario? He doesn't really. His part was so small as Donald Faison's delivery buddy, I am not even sure why he is credited in the previews as one of the stars of the film.
The writers of this project definitely needed to pick a tone for Next Day Air. Is it supposed to be a comedy or a drama? They never define this question and are constantly going back and forth between the two. I laughed at several moments throughout the film, but then the next scene would feature a serious segment where the audience is supposed to be frightened by the hardened gangster Shavoo or the powerful Mexican drug lord.
The clearest definition of this blunder is shown when Jesus is trying to decide which gun he should bring on his mission to find the missing package. He stares into the mirror like an adolescent holding his first gun shouting things like, "You want to mess with Jesus?!" I asked myself, "Am I supposed to be laughing, or intimidated by this scene?"
The overall script was not very good either. Even besides the almost completely gangsta lingo, there was not a lot of substance to the dialogue in this film. Plenty of boring scenes in this one. The characters were not very interesting and the script did nothing to help. The only reoccurring theme in this film are weird character names. Very poorly written.
The actors did a decent job with the script that they had to work with, but none of them brought anything special to the table.
Thankfully this film was short, only 84 minutes. By the time Next Day Air got to the 84th minute I was happy it was finally over. The terrible ending set this movie even farther down ladder. There was potential for this film to be good, but it struck out on so many levels. I cannot believe that all the actors and the movie studio completed reading this script and decided to make this project. Do not waste your time with Next Day Air unless you are renting from the Red Box at Mickey D's.
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