Friday, November 22, 2013

Delivery Man - 2 1/2 stars

This is a remake of a French Canadian movie called Starbuck, which just opened in Salt Lake back in April.  Directed by Ken Scott (who also directed the original), it stars Vince Vaughn as Dave Wozniak.  Dave is the kind of guy who lets everyone down in his life.  His pregnant girlfriend wants nothing to do with him, he is always screwing up at work, and he owes a lot of money to people who are threatening to drown him if he doesn't pay up.

When Dave was younger, he donated to a sperm bank hundreds of times.  Now 20 years later, a lawyer shows up and informs him that due to a clerical error, his sperm was used hundreds of times over a couple of years.  Now he has 533 children, and 150 of them are suing the clinic to find out who their biological father is.

This is basically a shot for shot remake of Starbuck.  The only difference (besides the language) is the characters play basketball instead of soccer.  I didn't like the original much, and I liked this a little better just because of Vince Vaughn.  But it does seem like he is phoning this in.  He doesn't try too hard, but he does get a few good laughs here and there.

Overall the movie is pretty uneven.  By the end it's supposed to be heartwarming, but it didn't really work.  I laughed a few times, and 2 1/2 stars is probably generous, but the movie wasn't boring.  At least the story itself is interesting, and Chris Pratt is pretty good as Dave's friend and lawyer.

So I can't really recommend it, but if you decide to see it, you probably won't be too disappointed.  It doesn't suck, it just isn't very good. 

No comments: