Official Synopsis
In this heartwarming comedy, underachiever David Wozniak (Vince Vaughn) learns he’s actually an overachiever — he’s fathered 533 children via donations made twenty years earlier! David soon discovers that the shock of his life might just be the best thing that’s ever happened to him. Along the way he discovers not only his true self, but also the father he could become. Also starring Chris Pratt and Cobie Smulders — and complete with bonus materials, including behind-the-scenes footage — it’s a feel-good movie that really delivers.
Delivery Man starts out well. The film firmly establishes who David Wozniak (Vince Vaughn) is and what unfortunate (but completely self-driven)situations he happens to be going through. Owing people money, not paying enough attention to his pregnant cop girlfriend and just hanging on barely on a day-to-day basis; this is David Wozniak’s life. It’s a bit much for one character to take on when it comes to believability in a movie, but director/writer Ken Scott doesn’t ask permission or forgiveness with David’s sum. Again, it’s a solid way to establish a character and who he is from the get-go.
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After our warm introduction to this lovable loser, the main premise of the film sets in. David has played whack-a-mole at a very corrupt sperm bank (600+ times) and ends up becoming the father of 533 children, 142 of which want to find the man who is missing in their life. Freaked out a bit, David turns to his lawyer friend Brett (Chris Pratt) for advice, but ends up going rogue and wanting to discover/learn/contact the kids on his own — just to see what they have turned out to be.
Along the way, David finds really brilliant aspects of his kids, and some un-brilliant aspects. From a daughter who is hopped on drugs to a full-blown, NBA basketball player all the way down to a handicap son who resides in a nurse/doctor guided home, David sees every type of situation in all of his kids. The meeting/greeting of all 142 of these kids inspires him to better his life, though his financial situation prevents him from starting ‘that’ new/better life.
I won’t say anything else about this movie, as I don’t want to ruin it, but I will be happy to give you some opinions (like you didn’t know that).
There are two big things wrong with this film.
The first is that the film really can’t find solid ground to stand on as the story begins to develop through several of its plot points. You can’t possibly put enough time into David’s life in a two-hour film and hope to come out with something of substance. In one plot point we’ve got David owing money for reasons that aren’t quite explained. All we know is that there are some people who want 80k or they’re going to drown him. It does add a ‘loser’ element to David’s character composition, but we need more information to complete that composition.
We also need more information about his relationship with Emma (Cobie Smulders). We don’t know their problems, we are simply put right in the middle of their relationship, which to us starts out shaky. There aren’t enough details to fully feel or understand the couple. If you’re going to care about a couple then you need to know them as a couple. Starting out with problems between the two isn’t a way to establish who they are as a unit.
Lastly, 142 kids is a bit much to believe. There’s no way these kids would establish a healthy relationship with David. Absolutely no way, at least not in the time given. Their reaction at the end isn’t believable. Generally when kids are left by their parents they end up being really, really pissed off.If you’ve ever met a kid who has been abandoned by their father then you understand it’s not hugs/kisses and roses.
Ultimately the story just can’t find solid ground because it doesn’t know what to concentrate on and what to do away with. With all these wild, unfinished connections, and problems with believability, we just can’t get to know the story or David very much, which hurts the overall film. That’s not to say there isn’t good acting or enjoyable moments, but as a whole it doesn’t feel complete; rather it feels extremely unbalanced (too much of one, not enough of another).
The second big issue with this film is that it’s not a straight up comedy. I would bet that most people who didn’t like this film had preconceived notions that this was going to be a typical Vince Vaughn comedy. Don’t get me wrong, there were some comedic moments, but for the most part we have a serious film with some dramatic elements that don’t feel like they belong in a Vince Vaughn film not called Pyscho. Who would have thought from the movie trailer? For those looking for laughs then you’re going to be incredibly disappointed with the results.
Negativity aside, I think that the actors were the best part of this movie. While some of the roles certainly were created shallowly, the main actors really looked like they believed in the material. Vaughn especially brought his ‘dad’ persona perfectly, as you will believe this man has ever budding fatherly tendencies. Other performances worth noting were Cobie Smulders’ Emma and a dead-pan Chris Pratt, who is just a treat to watch when he’s in a semi-serious role. The casting for the main characters in the film was perfectly done.
Sadly, at the end of the day Delivery Man simply doesn’t deliver what it promises. I can actually forgive the film for lacking the comedy prowess that we’re used to seeing in a Vince Vaughn film these days, but the lack of cohesive story flow is very unforgivable. The script needed a bit more work, maybe some addition by subtraction and a go over several times just to make sure it worked. If it had been cleaned up and organized a bit more then you get a good film with a solid message.
As for the Blu-ray portion of this film, it was a good looking picture, though the quality of the actual film seemed to lean towards a darker color scheme that didn’t completely work for it on the Blu-ray format. You get some solid looking reds, blues and a whole bunch of blacks/whites. Other than those, the rest of the color range in the HD was a bit bland. It’s not the HD transfer’s fault, but it still isn’t the prettiest of pictures at times. Having said that, it still doesn’t contain any graininess, color banding issues or artifacts, which is a great thing. I just wish it looked a bit more ‘pretty’ in HD. There are some films that lend well to the format, but this just isn’t one of them.
Finally, as for features, here’s what you get:
– Building Family
– Vince Vaughn: Off the Cuff
– Bloopers
– Deleted Scenes
The Building Family and Off the Cuff featurettes are pretty good. The Building Family featurette briefly gives you some insight about the making of the film, as well as a bunch of information/interviews with the cast as they were chosen for their respective roles. It focuses a lot on the 142 kids and what went into the selection process. It’s a neat featurette that adds some value to the movie.
As for the Vince Vaughn featurette, you get to see how Vaughn was chosen and how he winged a lot of the comedy in the movie. It probably helped create that dad persona that worked so well in the movie.
As for the other features, the bloopers were short and sort of bad. The comedy doesn’t really show in the bloopers and it’s interrupted with a couple of interviews (pssss, you don’t do that with bloopers). The deleted scenes, especially the first, were rightfully deleted. They would not have added much to the movie.
Overall, not a bad set of features.
