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When I first saw the trailers for Next Day Air, I wasn�t sure what to think of it. Was it supposed to be a zany comedy? An urban crime thriller? An action film? And even now, after seeing it, I�m still not so sure.
Next Day Air delivery guy Leo (Donald Faison) is about to lose his job for smoking pot while delivering packages. One more screw-up, and his boss (who also happens to be his mom) will fire him. Still, that doesn�t stop him�and, in his chemically-altered state, he ends up delivering a package to the wrong apartment.
As Jesus (Cisco Reyes), the rightful recipient, frantically searches for his package, the incompetent small-time crooks who live across the hall open the box and find 10 bricks of cocaine. Thinking it�s some kind of divine intervention�God�s way of improving their lot in life�they call Shavoo (Omari Hardwick), a paranoid drug dealer who�s having second thoughts about his chosen profession.
Convinced that the Next Day Air delivery guy is to blame, Jesus goes in search of Leo, while his boss�a California tough guy known as Bodega Diablo (Emilio Rivera)�hops on a plane to recover what�s rightfully his.
Next Day Air is a crazy, complex adventure�in the vein of films like Smokin� Aces or Guy Ritchie�s RocknRolla�only with an urban twist. Though the concept is becoming a bit of a clich�, it can still make for a thrilling (and wildly entertaining) film�if it�s done well. Unfortunately, though, Next Day Air isn�t done all that well.
Perhaps the film�s greatest problem is that it lacks subtlety. This kind of film tends to have its own kind of subtle dark humor to keep things interesting�but the humor in Next Day Air has all the subtlety of an elephant in a tutu. Some of the jokes fall painfully flat, and others are so ridiculously over-the-top that they seem completely out of place. There are a few scenes that work really well, but, for the most part, the writing is uneven�sometimes hokey and slapstick, sometimes dead serious�and those rough edges simply needed to be smoothed out a bit more.
At the same time, though, the cast doesn�t help. Many of the actors half-heartedly stumble (or mumble) their way through their lines, while other performances are totally overdone. Perhaps some of that could be attributed to the inexperience of a first-time director, while some of the blame lies with the sound editing�since the background music often drowns out the dialogue. But, whatever the case, it all works together to make the film less than convincing.
So while the film�s concept is pretty clever�and the urban-Philly twist could have made it feel fresh�Next Day Air shows that a good idea can only get you so far. It�s a solid attempt by rookie director Benny Boom�and I�m sure this won�t be the last you hear from him�but the finished project just misses the mark.
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