Next Day Air is sort of bracing, though it isn't very good: Its total lack of dramatic and comic bearings, to say nothing of a point, keeps you wondering about the next fatality, in a half-interested way.
Next Day Air (2009)
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work ![]()
Reviews Counted:18
Fresh:4
Rotten:14
Average Rating:4.2/10
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
There are no cops, not much farcical energy, and none of the satiric edge it would take to pull off the film’s grim denouement.
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.
Far from the worst of Taran tino knockoffs, Next Day Air takes the standard formula of dimwits chasing bags of drugs to the 'hood.
Screenwriter Blair Cobbs delivers some good lines, but the inconsistent tone and overacting by some of the lesser actors sabotage his efforts.
First-time feature director Benny Boom and writer Blair Cobbs get a lot of help from their cast, and the banter is often akin to a thug Three Stooges routine. But blood and predictability sour things in the end.
Stripped of f-bombs and b-words, Blair Cobb's screenplay could make a fortune- cookie threat. "You will see a bad movie today."
In the end, it's a fitfully amusing, sloppy comedy that doesn't work very hard for your 10 bucks.
With a script that snaps and characters that pop, Next Day Air nears neo-blaxploitation perfection.
A fiasco. A flop. A failure's failure. Next Day Air aims low but still misses the target.
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.
This is a movie that mines its plot from the Stone Age (or is it Stoned Age?) of caper comedies.
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.
The filmmakers behind Next Day Air probably have posters of Guy Ritchie and Quentin Tarantino lining their bedroom walls.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 68% 68% | The Last Station | 12/23 |
| 80% 80% | Sherlock Holmes | 12/25 |
| 38% 38% | It's Complicated | 12/25 |
| 36% 36% | Nine | 12/25 |
| | Alvin and the Chipmunk… | 12/25 |
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

Techland lists the best Sci-Fi films of this decade.

Moviefone takes a look back at the biggest stinkers of the past 10 years.

The Me and Orson Welles star answers reader questions on TIME.com.

Hollywood.com's C. Robert Cargill offers his thoughts on what the best decade for film was.

In the AV Club's "Scenic Routes," Mike D'Angelo reminisces about the Tim Burton film.
Promos

Get the latest Tomatometer updates on upcoming movies!



Top Critic


