When Jack Black isn’t trying to be the next John Candy he’s actually been a part of a number of good and interesting films. The latest of them is The D-Train, which veers off into much different territory than it starts out.
Black is Dan, coordinating his high school reunion. With numbers lagging down he comes across a plan. He spots his high school’s big on campus (James Marsden) in a commercial and comes up with a plan to get him there. Having a television star, even if its just a guy from a commercial, is what Dan thinks will be the panacea to their attendance woes. So he concocts a story to get to LA, to find Oliver and get him to come back for the reunion. But things don’t turn out the way he thinks they will as Oliver’s lifestyle leaves the two in an awkward position.
It’s interesting to see Black do a dark comedy after Bernie because Black’s choices have been interesting over the years. He’s trying to find his path as a new generation’s John Candy, the big fat guy with slapstick skills, but so far he really hasn’t had that runaway hit on his own outside of the film that established him in School of Rock. He’s got the status of a big time comedian, of being on the same level as someone like Will Ferrell or Adam Sandler, but he doesn’t have that film that has latched itself into the American cinematic lexicon like Anchorman.
This isn’t the film that’ll do it, either.
The D-Train is a film that’s dark and goes into places where you don’t expect, especially based on a trailer that makes it look like a wacky comedy, but for all its interesting moments in going dark and dealing with greater societal issues in 2015 it’s just not that funny.
Deleted Scenes and a gag reel, nothing more.
Paramount presents The D-Train. Written and Directed by Jarrad Paul and Andrew Mogel. Starring Jack Black, James Marsden. Run Time: 101 minutes Rated R. Released on DVD: 9.1.2015
