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Jack Black’s new movie is coming out tomorrow and if the critics are to be believed, it’s a stinker. Rotten Tomatoes gave it all of a 41% rating.
“The D Train” tells the story of what happens when the head of a high school reunion committee (Black) travels to Los Angeles to track down the most popular guy (Marsden) from his graduating class and convince him to go to the reunion.
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The movie also stars Jeffrey Tambor who can currently be seen in Amazon.com’s original series “Transparent” and James Marsden who plays the class’ most popular guy Oliver Lawless. After the movie’s Sundance debut Marsden said, “In comedy, you feel like you’ve seen it all, but this was so subversive.” That was in reference to a twist in the film which we will not give away.
“The D Train” was written and directed by Andrew Mogel and Jarrad Paul.
The Hollywood Reporter said, “The dark and sometimes funny The D Train is a feel-bad comedy, in that one feels bad for what happens to every character in the film and bad for sometimes being taken to places that feel more implausible than just transgressive. After not getting the career bump he should have for his great performance in Richard Linklater’s Bernie four years ago, it’s good to see Jack Black front-and-center again playing a very strange man in a feature film.
“But his character is so harmful to so many people for no reason other than his own unfinished business from high school that it’s a legitimate impulse just to want to get away from the guy much sooner than the film permits. The talented cast and pervasive waywardness will appeal to some, but commercial prospects look limited.”
The New Yorker called it a, “queasy, schematic, wanly sentimental comedy.”
“The writers and directors, Andrew Mogel and Jarrad Paul, define Dan and the other characters with nothing but their mannerisms. They see Dan’s crisis as one of fidelity, not one of desire or identity, yet their easygoing way with sexual behavior is a lesson that comes off as the whole point of the flimsy, overwrought tale. Nonetheless, Black and Marsden, along with Kathryn Hahn, as Dan’s wife, and Jeffrey Tambor, as Dan’s boss, sell the story with nuance and verve, ” it added.
And those were the nice reviews.
