Tucson CitizenTucson Citizen

‘Next Day Air’ better left for another day

Donald Faison (right) finds trouble when he accidentally delivers a package of cocaine to the wrong apartment.

Donald Faison (right) finds trouble when he accidentally delivers a package of cocaine to the wrong apartment.

The filmmakers behind “Next Day Air” probably have posters of Guy Ritchie and Quentin Tarantino lining their bedroom walls. The movie is like a fanboy love letter, but you end up wishing director Benny Boom simply sent his heroes bouquets instead.

The overpopulated action comedy is centered on a package of cocaine that is dropped off at the wrong apartment. Leo (a frantic Donald Faison) is the pothead delivery man responsible for the mistake; the rubber-faced actor is much easier to take in his role on TV’s “Scrubs.”

Cisco Reyes and Yasmin Deliz play the couple who is waiting for the coke in their seedy apartment building. Mike Epps and Wood Harris are two low-level crooks who live down the hall and receive the package instead. That sets off a chain of events that leads to a predictably violent conclusion.

Newcomer Boom directs the script by Blair Cobbs, another first-timer. Neither shows a lot of imagination and the stereotypes run deep throughout.

On the plus side, the film does have a certain frenetic energy, and Epps can wring a laugh out of the driest material. But really, you should just rent a double bill of “Reservoir Dogs” and “RocknRolla.”

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‘NEXT DAY AIR’

Rating: R for pervasive language, drug content, some violence and brief sexuality

Length: 90 minutes

Playing at: Opens Friday at Century 20 Park Place, Century 20 El Con Mall, Harkins Tucson Spectrum 18

Grade: D+

Citizen Online Archive, 2006-2009

This archive contains all the stories that appeared on the Tucson Citizen's website from mid-2006 to June 1, 2009.

In 2010, a power surge fried a server that contained all of videos linked to dozens of stories in this archive. Also, a server that contained all of the databases for dozens of stories was accidentally erased, so all of those links are broken as well. However, all of the text and photos that accompanied some stories have been preserved.

For all of the stories that were archived by the Tucson Citizen newspaper's library in a digital archive between 1993 and 2009, go to Morgue Part 2

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