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Next Day AirClaudia PuigNext Day Air can't decide whether it's a broad stoner comedy or a gritty Tarantino-esque action flick. The humor is there, but violence brings the laughter to an abrupt halt. Scrubs' Donald Faison plays Leo, a pot-addled delivery man who drops off a package containing a shipment of cocaine to the wrong apartment. The residents, a pair of petty thugs (Mike Epps, Wood Harris), regard it as a gift from God and make plans to sell it to a dealer cousin (Omari Hardwick). The crook waiting for the coke shipment is their unsavory next-door neighbor, Jesus (Cisco Reyes), and his take-charge girlfriend, Chita (Yasmin Deliz). Deliz is hilarious as a sassy Latina who makes Rosie Perez seem like a shrinking violet. Fearing for their lives, Jesus and Chita try to track down the drug shipment. All signs point to Leo or a fellow delivery man, Eric (Mos Def). The funniest gag comes when Epps has an incomprehensible phone conversation with Hardwick which necessitates subtitles. The formal translation of their trash talk is reminiscent of Airplane's Barbara Billingsley and her "I speak jive" bit. Director Benny Boom is aiming for a jokier Guy Ritchie caper, interspersing events with quick cuts, flashbacks and freeze-frames. But when the would-be criminal neighbors meet, guns blazing, things get shockingly ugly. It's the bullet-riddled finale that lands the death blow on a film that would have been better had it blunted the shocks and focused on the guffaws. |
