Dark comedy is one of my favorite things. When it works it’s because it’s satirical and
absurd and the absurdity allows us to see the ridiculousness of a certain
situation. Movies like Kubrick’s Dr.
Strangelove uses dark comedy to show us something about humanity. Most comedy is light. Dark comedy is heavy and impactful. The D-Train tries to be that dark
comedy. The problem is it relies mostly
on shock value and nothing substantial for its impact.
Jack
Black is back on the big screen as Dan Landsman, a self-loathing, unpopular,
middle aged guy who, despite having a loving family and a decent job, only
seems to care about his twenty year high school reunion he is trying to put
together. When he discovers that Oliver
Lawless, the most popular guy from high school, is in a nationwide Banana Boat
commercial, he decides that Oliver is the ticket to a successful reunion.
This
movie boasts some pretty big names. Jack
Black, Kathryn Hahn, James Marsden, and Jeffrey Tambor have all had success in
the past. This cast does all they can,
but I can’t for the life of me understand how these talented actors read this
script and still wanted to be a part of this project. The dialogue is awkward, the laughs are not
there, and nothing makes any sense. On
top of all that, the pacing is terrible.
This was the longest 100 minute movie I have ever tried to sit
through. If only the bad screenplay was
the only problem this movie had.
Unfortunately, it’s not even the biggest one.
I spent
the first half of this movie wondering why in the world a high school reunion
was so important to this 38 year old man.
He seems to be doing alright in his life. He has a supportive wife, which Hahn portrays
with the best performance in the film.
He has a teenage son who seems to respect him. On top of that, he appears to have a very comfortable
job. With all this going for him, he is
completely hung up on how bad his high school experience was. He voluntarily throws all the good things in
his life away by lying about having to take a business trip to L.A. (which the movie
itself later points out was completely unnecessary) so that he can find this Oliver
Lawless and get him to come to the reunion.
This makes no sense to me and
destroys the films credibility immediately.
So, the
first half of the movie is boring and confusing. Then something happens that makes the rest of
the movie, still boring and confusing, but also weird and awkward. This is part of the films reliance on shock
value that I mentioned earlier. This
scene is completely unnecessary to the plot of the movie. Also unnecessary are the many F-bombs Kathryn
Hahn drops while she is holding her baby (which in a few scenes is very obviously
a doll) and the way too adult problems that their 13 year old son is having
with his new girlfriend. Awkwardness
appears to be the theme of this film.
I found
very little to like about this movie. There
is a decent point buried in it somewhere but the movie completely misses
it. The performances are good
(especially Marsden and Hahn) but they are wasted on a messy script and
characters that are impossible to appreciate.
The best compliment I can give this film is that the soundtrack was
good. That should tell you all you need
to know.
This is
one of those movies that is such a mess that I can’t imagine how anybody
involved ever thought that it was any good.
It is horribly written, not particularly well directed, and wastes a
pretty good collection of talent. This
movie is such a mess that I am honestly ashamed to have seen it. The Movie Man gives it 1 out of 5 stars.
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