Next Day Air (2009)
2/10
Express delivery
13 October 2011
Being addicted to the doobie may not be the best character trait when working for a courier service. Leo (Donald Faison) seems unperturbed, given his mother is the person who hired him. On another typical high Leo mistakenly delivers a package full of heroine to a bunch of slightly retarded wannabee gangsta / bank robbas / criminimal masterminds Brody (Mike Epps) and Guch (Wood Harris). This quickly causes a series of events which lead to the opening scene of the movies: Leo being surrounded by people with guns and a low tolerance for ineptitude.

"Next Day Air" closely follows in the footsteps set out by movies such as "Snatch" or "51st State", although this time around it takes place entirely in the States with 80% of the movie occurring in two rooms. As can be expected it is a mix of unabated comedy with brutal gangsters, fast talking criminals and crazy sequence of events ending with a grand showdown finale to tie all the separate plots and characters together.

Based on a very rudimentary plot the movie aims at delivering the package with the minimum necessary runtime. At just 84 minutes and no less than 9 main characters being involved there is no place for their development, background or emotional involvement. Instead we get a fast paced movie (which somehow manages to find time to have pointless detours into non-funny side scene attractions) with a lack of purpose. None of the character are able to catch your attention and involve you in the story, although Omari Hardwick (playing a drug dealer wanting out of business) does his sincerest best to bridge the script shortcomings.

A sorely empty package filled with fluff, but at least the delivery is express so at least you won't waste a lot of time waiting for it to be over and done with.
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