Movie Review: "Delivery Man" (2013)

Movie: "Delivery Man"
Director: Ken Scott
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 1 hour, 43 minutes

Image Source

David Wozniak (Vince Vaughn) is an underachiever and an all-around unreliable person. He works at his dad's meat shop as a delivery man, but constantly slacks off and gets sidetracked from his duties. He doesn't call his girlfriend Emma (Colbie Smulders) and often disappears because he is too busy. David finds out Emma is pregnant and reacts poorly. He also has a large amount of debt, which is being held over his head by someone who wants to "drown him." One day, he returns home to find a lawyer standing in his living room. This lawyer was hired by a fertility clinic where David donated in the 90's. The lawyer informs David that he is biological father of 533 children, and 142 are going to sue to find out his identity. With the help of Brett (Chris Pratt), who happens to be a very bad attorney, David must fight to conceal his identity but curiosity and the knowledge of him as a soon-to-be father drives him to want to get to know his "kids." He has to decide his fate one way or the other.

You know, I think I've discovered something. It seems as if society tells us to hate Vince Vaughn. Every single time we go into a Vince Vaughn movie, I almost have this predisposed notion that it will automatically suck simply because he is in it.

Well you know what, America? I DON'T hate Vince Vaughn. I don't love him, but I certainly don't hate him. I think he's a likable goofball, and while he's not exactly the most attractive or most diverse actor on the planet, he carries himself alright in leading roles. He does alright with what he's given. It's pretty much the same lovable goofball performance every single movie, but I still can't and won't hate Vince Vaughn, damn it. Vince Vaughn just always plays Vince Vaughn.

That being said, this movie is okay. It's a remake of a French film called "Starbuck," and seems as if it was remade solely for one purpose: because there is this notion that Americans won't take the time to watch a French (or any other) language film. I mean, the first 30 minutes of this movie are almost exactly a word-for-word remake. They could have basically just dubbed the French version and called it a day. Once we got to a point in the movie where we no longer compared the two films to one another, I feel like it got funnier and I feel like I personally liked it more than I would have otherwise.

The acting isn't really spectacular. Like we said, he's the same freakin' person in every movie. Chris Pratt is a push-over, and his lines felt read verbatim as opposed to acted out for the big screen. There are only a few times in the movies where we felt the slightest bit of passion regarding what he was saying. But, again, you have another actor who isn't terrible diverse...Chris Pratt will always be Andy Dwyer from "Park and Recreation" to me: another lovable goofball type who comes off as a bit dimwitted. The only person who gave a little bit of flare to their role was Andrzej Blumenfeld, who plays Vince Vaughn's father.

The movie relies 98% on its heartfelt ending. There's is no doubt in anyone's mind, even the people in the audience watching this movie, how it's going to end. I mean, you can pretty much watch the trailer for this movie and figure out how it's going to end from there. The only part you don't really see coming from the trailer is that Emma is pregnant, and that is discussed in the first 10 minutes of the movie. While the ending is cute, it's not really enough to call this a work of art. It's alright, and if someone wanted to watch it on TV or DVD, I might watch it again, but don't hold your breath for any sort of award winning performance, a good plot, a deep script, stellar acting, or off-the-rails story line. It's pretty much your average American remake of an otherwise okay French film. There's not even that much of a difference between the two versions that make its remake justifiable in any sense of the word. Meh, meh, mehhmity, meh meh meh.

My Rating: 5.5/10
BigJ's Rating: 5/10
IMDB's Rating: 6.1/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 36%
Do we recommend this movie: Meh.