Next Day Air - Mo Review

Donald Faison is a talented dude who is funny as fuck on Scrubs. Mos Def is a talented dude who is a fire rapper and has a unique onscreen presence. Mike Epps is an all around funny mofo that can add life to an otherwise dull movie. Wood Harris has been killin' it on screen for years and Darius McCrary...well...there was always Family Matters, Eddie. Still, with the talent line up in this movie, you would think you'd be able to squeeze out a decent comedy about a mis-delivered box of drugs, a couple of high ass delivery dudes, some pissed off dealers and some happy ass two-time loser crooks. You would think, right? Well, Benny Boom almost did with his directorial debut. The problem is that this movie couldn't decide what kind of comedy it was going to be, if it was going to be a comedy at all.

Let me lay it out a little bit:
Donald Faison (Leo) is a fuck up. He's a delivery driver who gets high 24/7 and is only holding onto his job because his mom (Debbie Allen) is the supervisor. Wood Harris (Guch) and Mike Epps (Brody) are homies that are "crime buddies" who constantly fuck up heists, the latest one being a bank robbery where they end up jacking the security tapes instead of the money. Cisco Reyes (Jesus - that's HAY-zeus, but not if you let him tell it) is waiting for a big shipment of coke from his boss while being constantly reprimanded by his pestering girlfriend Yasmin Deliz (Chita). [Mos Def]Damn, that bitch was bad![/Mos Def]

Leo fucks up and delivers the box to Jesus's neighbors, Brody and Guch. See where this is going? The shit should have been funny as fuck. They made a few crucial mistakes. Mos Def is highly underused. He's only in a couple of scenes - one of which is in the trailer. Secondly, the movie goes from being a comedy to being a black comedy (not a black cast comedy, fools! A black comedy like War Of The Roses or Pulp Fiction) to being a drama with a message? I'm not even sure. That's the problem. Benny, you need to go back to directing videos, nigga - if you can't get your shit together. One of the most important parts of directing is DIRECTION and this movie had too many. Instead of being "typical" they tried to flip shit up. I wish they'd have chosen to be typical. The reason there are formulas for certain types of movies is because they work. If this were an indie film, they could have played with it a bit more and it could have been tight. Instead, they were vague about what kind of movie you were seeing and the characters were not likable enough for you to feel compassion for any of them. There have been many movies to fall into this trap before. I remember not caring if any of the characters from Cloverfield survived because none of them were all that relatable. This movie, while having funny characters, also had characters that were too flawed to see as the protagonist and you end up defaulting to characters that are "less fucked up" than others.
I went in wanting to like this movie. I admit that. The ending made me have to cast a dark cloud on this film.
If you go see this joint, go see it because you want to support Benny in hopes he gets it right next time. Go see it because you know all of the white folk and Trek fans are going to be at Star Trek. Go to see fine ass Yasmin Deliz, who actually proved to have much more potential as an actress after this film. Go for the theater experience. Go for the popcorn and artificial butter. Just don't go thinking Mo suggested it. I would really wait till this movie is on video to see it.