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September 2009
NEXT DAY AIR(DVD REVIEW)

by Kam Williams

NEXT DAY AIR(DVD REVIEW)

Cast: Debbie Allen, Kevin Benton, Donald Faison, Darius McCrary, Mike Epps, Lauren London
Directors: Benny Boom
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Language: English
Subtitles: English, Spanish
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)

Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Number of discs: 1
Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Summit Entertainment
DVD Release Date: September 15, 2009
Run Time: 84 minutes




   
















Hilarious Homage to Blaxploitation Genre Released on DVD

This flick is a throwback to the Blaxploitation Era from the 1970s. But where most of those low-budget productions were merely poorly-scripted, sloppily-edited, take-the-money-and-run rip-offs, this homage to that best-forgotten genre is actually a well-executed, comic crime caper.

The story opens in Philadelphia where we meet a couple of drivers for an overnight delivery service, “Employee of the Month” Eric (Mos Def) and his hapless counterpart, Leo (Donald Faison). The former doesn’t deserve the accolade since he wastes too much company time getting high and chasing a pretty colleague (Lauren London) around the office. The latter, meanwhile, is a lazy loser who’s on the verge of getting fired by his own mother (Debbie

Allen), the manager of Next Day Air. The plot thickens the day Lollygagging Leo, under the influence of weed, accidentally delivers he has no idea is filled with 10 kilos of cocaine to the wrong apartment. He leaves the package in the hands of Brody (Mike Epps) and Guch (Wood Harris), small-time crooks who think they’ve died and gone to heaven. Figuring the that the dope has a street value in the six-figures, they start making plans to retire by selling it to a local dealer (Omari Hardwick) with a very menacing henchman (Darius McCrary).

What Brody and Guch don’t know, however, is that the coke was meant for Jesus (Cisco Reyes), the henpecked Latino who lives just down the hall with his loudmouthed girlfriend Chita (Yasmin Deliz). For their unassuming neighbor happens to be a gangsta’ with a Mexican cartel run by Bodega (Emilio Rivera), a ruthless mobster already on his way to America and determined to retrieve hiscontraband come hell or high water.

Taking no prisoners, Bodega retraces the path of his errant parcel, embroiling all of the above in a high body-count affair that’s every bit as funny as it is bloody. Brace yourself for a raunchy brand of humor and for gratuitous gore that can get fairly gruesome.

A screwball splatter flick which might best thought of as a campy cross of Cotton Comes to Harlem and No Country for Old Men.