He may be a first-time feature director, but music video master Benny Boom clearly knows how to pull a midlevel movie together. That’s harder than it sounds.
Next Day Air (2009)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:59
Fresh:13
Rotten:46
Average Rating:3.9/10
Consensus: Rife with half-baked jokes and excessive violence, Next Day Air is an uninspired stoner comedy.
Genre: Comedies
Synopsis:
When two bumbling criminals (Mike Epps and Wood Harris) accidentally receive a package of grade-A cocaine, they think they've hit the jackpot. But when they try to cash in on their luck, it...
When two bumbling criminals (Mike Epps and Wood Harris) accidentally receive a package of grade-A cocaine, they think they've hit the jackpot. But when they try to cash in on their luck, it triggers a series of events that forever changes the lives of ten people in Next Day Air, an uproarious action comedy featuring an all-star cast including Donald Faison, Mos Def and Debbie Allen.
Smalltime hoods Brody (Mike Epps) and Guch (Wood Harris) have seen better days. But when a wacked-out courier (Donald Faison) accidentally brings them a box containing 10 kilos of high-quality cocaine meant for their next-door neighbors, it sets in motion a hilarious and harrowing chain of events that could cost all of them their lives.
Brody and Guch immediately arrange to sell the coke to Brody’s drug dealer cousin (Omari Hardwick) and his tightlipped bodyguard (Darius McCrary). But when the intended recipients of the package, wannabe gangster Jesus (Cisco Reyes) and his feisty girlfriend (Yasmin Deliz), realize the box hasn’t arrived, they set out on a desperate search to find it before ruthless drug kingpin Bodega Diablo (Emilio Rivera) notices it’s missing.
But they’re too late. Furious over the loss of his shipment, mob boss Bodega will stop at nothing to get the drugs back. With Brody and Guch’s drug deal about to go down, all parties are on a collision course that’s almost certain to end in heavy gunfire. And whoever’s still standing when the smoke clears could walk away with nearly a million dollars in cash and drugs!
--© Summit Entertainment
Starring: Donald Faison, Mos Def, Mike Epps, Debbie Allen
Starring: Donald Faison, Mos Def, Mike Epps, Debbie Allen
Director: Benny Boom
Director: Benny Boom
Screenwriter: Blair Cobbs
Studio: Summit Entertainment
Reviews for Next Day Air
Far from the worst of Taran tino knockoffs, Next Day Air takes the standard formula of dimwits chasing bags of drugs to the 'hood.
From the violent opening to the nihilistic ending, Next Day Air is so cynical that its few laughs are a release of tension.
Screenwriter Blair Cobbs delivers some good lines, but the inconsistent tone and overacting by some of the lesser actors sabotage his efforts.
First-time feature director Benny Boom and writer Blair Cobbs get a lot of help from their cast, and the banter is often akin to a thug Three Stooges routine. But blood and predictability sour things in the end.
Next Day Air is a stylish movie that smoothly shifts from genial comedy to violent action and back again, almost like a Missy Elliott song cramming together four different snippets that magically mesh.
Stripped of f-bombs and b-words, Blair Cobb's screenplay could make a fortune- cookie threat. "You will see a bad movie today."
A messy and unpleasant genre mashup that needed at least two or three rewrites before shooting started.
In the end, it's a fitfully amusing, sloppy comedy that doesn't work very hard for your 10 bucks.
Next Day Air is a talentless travesty, a trying torture fest that wants to believe it's cool and contemporary.
Next Day Air is unecessarily violent and completely pointless. One of the worst films of the year.
With a script that snaps and characters that pop, Next Day Air nears neo-blaxploitation perfection.
Falls flat as both a dark comedy and action film. It's often lazy, dim-witted and tedious while low on laughs, verve and imagination.
It's an oddly lethargic production, heavy in foul language and gun-pointing, but slow-witted and uninspired.
Boom's comedy is a trap: We like these dudes, and know that while crime does pay, it always takes a deadly cut.
Latest News for Next Day Air
September 03, 2009:
A Whole New Kind of Jerkin' Heads to Hollywood ![]()
Hey, what's the dance craze that all the kids are getting down to? It's called jerkin', and thanks to the producers of "Next Day Air," it's coming to the big screen. More...
May 10, 2009:
Laughs aplenty in hilarious homage to Blaxploitation genre. ![]()
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May 07, 2009:
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May 07, 2009:
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