Updates the spirit of blaxploitation without feeling pressed to worship or satirize it.
Next Day Air (2009)
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work ![]()
Reviews Counted:60
Fresh:13
Rotten:47
Average Rating:4/10
Consensus: Rife with half-baked jokes and excessive violence, Next Day Air is an uninspired stoner comedy.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for pervasive language, drug content, some violence and brief sexuality.
Genre: Comedies
Theatrical Release:May 8, 2009 Wide
Box Office: $10,017,041
Synopsis:
When two bumbling criminals (Mike Epps and Wood Harris) accidentally receive a package of grade-A cocaine, they think they've hit the jackpot. But when they try to cash in on their luck, it...
When two bumbling criminals (Mike Epps and Wood Harris) accidentally receive a package of grade-A cocaine, they think they've hit the jackpot. But when they try to cash in on their luck, it triggers a series of events that forever changes the lives of ten people in Next Day Air, an uproarious action comedy featuring an all-star cast including Donald Faison, Mos Def and Debbie Allen.
Smalltime hoods Brody (Mike Epps) and Guch (Wood Harris) have seen better days. But when a wacked-out courier (Donald Faison) accidentally brings them a box containing 10 kilos of high-quality cocaine meant for their next-door neighbors, it sets in motion a hilarious and harrowing chain of events that could cost all of them their lives.
Brody and Guch immediately arrange to sell the coke to Brody’s drug dealer cousin (Omari Hardwick) and his tightlipped bodyguard (Darius McCrary). But when the intended recipients of the package, wannabe gangster Jesus (Cisco Reyes) and his feisty girlfriend (Yasmin Deliz), realize the box hasn’t arrived, they set out on a desperate search to find it before ruthless drug kingpin Bodega Diablo (Emilio Rivera) notices it’s missing.
But they’re too late. Furious over the loss of his shipment, mob boss Bodega will stop at nothing to get the drugs back. With Brody and Guch’s drug deal about to go down, all parties are on a collision course that’s almost certain to end in heavy gunfire. And whoever’s still standing when the smoke clears could walk away with nearly a million dollars in cash and drugs!
--© Summit Entertainment
Starring: Donald Faison, Mos Def, Mike Epps, Debbie Allen
Starring: Donald Faison, Mos Def, Mike Epps, Debbie Allen
Director: Benny Boom
Director: Benny Boom
Screenwriter: Blair Cobbs
Studio: Summit Entertainment
Get This Movie
Reviews for Next Day Air
Boom's comedy is a trap: We like these dudes, and know that while crime does pay, it always takes a deadly cut.
Filmgoers who think outside the artmovie box will discover that the artful and enjoyable Next Day Air offers an episode of 21st-century black American life that August Wilson never got to.
Next Day Air is a stylish movie that smoothly shifts from genial comedy to violent action and back again, almost like a Missy Elliott song cramming together four different snippets that magically mesh.
He may be a first-time feature director, but music video master Benny Boom clearly knows how to pull a midlevel movie together. That’s harder than it sounds.
It's hard to make a movie that ends with blazing guns and dead bodies and still send the audience away laughing, but Next Day Air finds the right drive-in movie tone.
A screwball comedy/splatter flick which might best thought of as a campy cross of Cotton Comes to Harlem and No Country for Old Men.
Nearly every scene is a play on the perception that the accumulation of wealth will bring social validation and self-worth.
With a script that snaps and characters that pop, Next Day Air nears neo-blaxploitation perfection.
A very pleasant surprise, Next Day Air is the rare crime comedy that does justice to both sides of the equation.
Next Day Air is a bloody screwball comedy, a film of high spirits. It tells a complicated story with acute timing and clarity, and gives us drug-dealing lowlifes who are almost poetic in their clockwork dialogue.
Any shreds of comedy are literally blown away in a violent climax that sees most of the cast shooting at each other, complete with graphic blood spurts.
Falls flat as both a dark comedy and action film. It's often lazy, dim-witted and tedious while low on laughs, verve and imagination.
Next Day Air is a talentless travesty, a trying torture fest that wants to believe it's cool and contemporary.
Air is an interesting misfire, but often an irritatingly erratic viewing experience that would've profited greatly from a good old-fashioned dose of clear-headed concentration.
Next 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.
I admire Benny Boom's effort; he wanted to make a movie and did it. One can only hope his next venture in Hollywood will be more original and sharp.
Latest News for Next Day Air
September 03, 2009:
A Whole New Kind of Jerkin' Heads to Hollywood ![]()
Hey, what's the dance craze that all the kids are getting down to? It's called jerkin', and thanks to the producers of "Next Day Air," it's coming to the big screen. More...
May 10, 2009:
Laughs aplenty in hilarious homage to Blaxploitation genre. ![]()
More...
May 07, 2009:
Critics Consensus: Star Trek Is The Best-Reviewed Wide Release of 2009!
This week at the movies, we've got a brand new Enterprise (Star Trek, starring Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto) and a failed delivery (Next Day Air, starring Donald Faison and... More...
May 07, 2009:
Box Office Guru Preview: Star Trek Opens Fire on Wolverine
For the first time in four years the second weekend of May will see a new release debut in the number one spot as Paramount boldly re-energizes one of its oldest franchises with... More...
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 90% 90% | The White Ribbon | 12/30 |
| 100% 100% | Daybreakers | 1/8 |
| | Leap Year | 1/8 |
| 83% 83% | Youth in Revolt | 1/8 |
| | The Book of Eli | 1/15 |
RT On Current TV
DIRECTV 358 | Comcast 107 | DISH Network 196 | More...
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
CloseSponsored Links
Around The Network
- Next Day Air at Rotten Tomatoes
- Next Day Air at IGN
Fresh Links
Featured

Take a look at MSN's choices for the Top 10 films of 2009.

What were your favorites? Least favorites? The funniest and scariest? Moviefone wants to know!

Hollywood.com explores why QT's characters resonate so well with audiences.

TIME chimes in with their own list of the best films released this year.

Click through to see which movies BuzzSugar placed in their Best-of-Decade list!
Promos

Get the latest Tomatometer updates on upcoming movies!



Top Critic



