Next Day Air (2009)

Brody (Mike Epps), Guch (Wood Harris) and Hassie are incompetent bank robbers. Leo (Donald Faison) is a weed-smoking incompetent delivery man who has to beg his mother to keep his job. He delivers a box to the wrong apartment. It turns out to be a box filled with bricks of cocaine. They try to sell them to cousin Shavoo and he promises to come back with the money. Meanwhile Jesus is trying to find his package and assumes that Leo stole it. Jesus and Chita track down the wrong delivery guy Eric (Yasiin Bey).Everybody is idiotic. Everybody is annoying. Everybody is arrogant. The problem is that I hate a lot of these characters. The biggest problem is Donald Faison because he is the most annoying of them all. He is the one character who shouldn't be the arrogant annoying idiot. He should be the innocent in the lot. The comedy comes from him getting caught up in a situation beyond his control. I want Leo to get killed in the most horrific way possible. Yasiin Bey would have been infinitely more likable as Leo. Mike Epps and Wood Harris are a fun duo. Their part is watchable but I hate most of the rest.

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.

Sure, there is an attempt by script writer Blair Cobbs to have some sort of story or "plot" for this movie, set in the underbelly of today's urban America. And yes, of course director Benny Boom tries to elicit the most realistic or "believable" acting performances possible from such film veterans as Mike Epps, Mos Def, and Debbie Allen, all of whom appear in NEXT DAY AIR. But, when you get down to brass tacks, this flick is all about showing the nitty gritty life down in the trenches of U.S. inner-cities. This site, IMDb, has a feature available for most movies called "key words." I found the listings there particularly revealing for NEXT DAY AIR. The key words provided for this movie include "cocaine," "female nudity," "marijuana," "punched in the face," "pot-head," "drug dealer," "gang-banger," "cockfighting," "shoot-out," and "thug." Obviously, NEXT DAY AIR can provide a valuable key to survival in urban America for those visiting there from Switzerland or Grosse Pointe Farms.

HBCU247.com writes two smalltime hoods, Brody (Mike Epps) and Guch (Wood Harris) open the box and find a gift from heaven. They immediately arrange to sell the coke to Brody's drug dealer cousin for $150,000. In the meantime, Jesus (Cisco Reves) tries to track down who got his package before the drug kingpin, Bodega Diablo (Emilio Rivera) notices that his drugs are missing. Unfortunately, time has run out and Bodega is in town, and he is furious that his shipment is lost. Bodega will get his drugs back or heads will roll. During the same time, Brody and Guch are about to complete their drug deal with Guch's cousin. They are on a collision course with destiny, because they are about to have company knocking at their door. This was a funny movie about the perils of being high while on the job. PLEASE DO NOT GET HIGH WHILE ON THE JOB!!! It was fun to watch…once and not alone (you may need other people's commentary to make the movie funnier). And now that I think about it…I wonder if my broken furniture and missing items from our several moves happened because our movers were high. Shame…Shame…This movie makes me wonder why people think it is a good idea to get quick money by selling drugs. Stupidity was definitely the new black in this movie, and these people were wearing it well! This movie is good enough to watch once…as a rental! So ENJOY!