The Big Score
Written: Jun 08 '09 (Updated Jun 11 '09)
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Product Rating:
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| Bang For The Buck |
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Pros: Mercifully short (1½ hrs.).
Cons: Bad language on TV newscast about a b___s___ robbery.
The Bottom Line: With crooks this dumb we hardly need cops, and armed as they are for the drug exchange, they've eliminated the need for jails too.
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| topreviewerman's Full Review: Next Day Air |
Next Day Air (NDA) is like UPS in your nightmares: FRAGILE packages get tossed around like bales of hay, one delivery man (Mos Def) routinely rifles packages for valuables, and another, Leo (Donald Faison), reeking of marijuana, keeps his job only through nepotism. If NDA is a nightmare, then bank robbers Brody (Mike Epps), Guch (Wood Harris), and Hassie (Malik Barnhardt) are a bank president's dream come true if his bank is fated to be "robbed." Them hitting his bank would be like a good security exercise but without the expense. They make all the mistakes spoken about in Kenny Rogers's song The Gambler:
You gotta know when to hold 'em,
Know when to fold 'em,
Know when to walk away,
Know when to run.
You never count your money while you're sittin' at the table.
There'll be time enough to count it when the dealing's done.
These bank robbers don't know when to take the money and run, when to give a freeloader his walking papers, or when not to count the money in a hot zone.
Across the hall from their crib live small time Latino dope dealers Jesus (Cisco Reyes) and his hot Puerto Rican moll Chita (Yasmin Deliz) who are expanding their business but in their haste have it shipped Next Day Air to their own address. Well now, Leo gets to make the delivery—"All I really need is my weed"—if he can find the right place. If not, he'll leave it with their neighbors—"I'm a drug dealer now"—who are like some crooked three stooges, only not as smart. After Chita does some patient tracking, their supplier Bodega Diablo (Emilio Rivera) leaves his cock fight in Calexico, Mexico to recover his missing coke in the city of brotherly love (Philadelphia) where armed by Jesus and guided by Leo they pay a visit next door. The crooks there are also armed because they don't trust Brody's drug-dealing cousin Shavoo (Omari Hardwick) who with his partner "Buddy" (Darius McCrary), both armed, have come to make the exchange.
With so much firepower and so few brains in that one apartment, you can see why the scriptwriter needn't bother any more after this one scene, although you may want to stay and watch some loose ends tied up on the side of the screen as the closing credits roll.
For such a dumb collection of characters, though, there are some interesting philosophical questions they raise. Leo's mom Ms Jackson (Debbie Allen), his boss, wonders why he can't be more like his brother Eric who is Employee of the Month. Guch and Brody question the lifestyle of Hassie who does nothing but "smoke, sh_t, and sleep," and whom neither can remember knowing before he moved in with them. Guch and Brody in wondering what to do with the unexpected delivery of ten kilos of top grade cocaine, reach the rationalization that: "God sent us this sh_t. He knew we needed a way out. And He sent us a way out." The second delivery man reaches a similar justification for his pilfering. All four philosophical issues are succinctly covered by Solomon in Ecclesiastes, in the the Bible, which I'll lay out here.
(Eccl. 5:11) "When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?" The delivery man was able to supplement his salary by pilfering, but someone can just as easily take it from him, and then he gains nothing save having seen it pass through his hands.
(Eccl. 5:12) "The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep." Hassie who simply kept his nose to the grindstone was able to sleep through all kinds of distraction while his roommates Brody and Guch had to hide weapons under the bed and keep an eye on each other to protect their score—"Bros kill for coke."
(Eccl. 5:13-14a) "There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt. But those riches perish by evil travail: …" Brody and Guch kept the misdirected package to their own hurt, to inevitably lose it in a bad play.
(Eccl. 5:18) "Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it is his portion." As for, "God sent that," what God sends us, if He gets credit somewhere, is the opportunity to become employee of the month if one works at it. Free dope out of the blue? I don't think so.
This film is shot at some kind of low resolution which seems to suit the drab surroundings. That plays up the contrast all the more for a flashy hot watch or a hot flashy babe. The writers overplayed their hand, though, for trying to get cute with the TV broadcast about a botched bank robbery, but maybe I'm just thinking from the perspective of having lived in Pennsylvania and worked in (radio) broadcasting, knowing what kind of material simply wouldn't make it onto the air. What I really thought was funny, though, was the jive phone exchange between Brody and Shavoo with formal English subtitles below it. That cracked me up.
I also liked the dynamic between Jesus and Chita. They bickered all the time, but she was fiercely loyal to him. She was taller than him too, which I thought was funny when he was the one always in control.
That pretty much describes the picture, and if you want to fit in a short film, this one could work. It's not outstanding by any means, but there's nothing really wrong with it either, if you like this kind of fare.
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: If Your First Choice is Sold Out
Viewing Method: Other
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Duration
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Epinions.com ID:
topreviewerman
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Member: Earl Gosnell
Location: Eugene, OR
Reviews written: 83
Trusted by: 2 members
About Me:
BSEE, U. of Cincinnati. Ordained minister, United Congregation of Friends. Poet Laureate, Longfellow, Colorado.
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