Next Day Air

Release Date: 05/08/2009

DVD Release Date: 09/15/2009

U.S. Box Office: $10 Million

Foreign Box Office: N/A

Production Budget: 3 Million

MPAA Rating: R

Run Time: 84 Minutes

Next Day Air is a character driven dark comedy, where two bone head criminals (Mike Epps and Wood Harris) are delivered a package of cocaine. These two criminals thought that it is a gift sent from god. This package was not a gift from god, but rather a drug lord's cocaine that was delivered to the wrong address by a stoner delivery man (Donald Faison, TV's Scrubs). When the drug lord (Emilio Rivera) goes looking for his cocaine, it starts chain of events that will alter the lives of everyone involved. 

This Guy Richie-esque gang drama/comedy is an hour and a half of constant pros and cons. I really love Mos Def (who plays Donald Faison's co worker at the delivery company. He affords his lifestyle because he steals from the packages he delivers), Mike Epps, and Donald Faison, but this script written by first time writer Blair Cobbs is a cross between a Guy Richie film and a Tyler Perry film. All in all, it wasn't unwatchable. The Director, Benny Boom, has a lot of experience in making  rap and hip hop music documentaries, but not any film experience so the film isn't particularly interesting to look at either. I'm going to give Next Day Air a 2 1/2 out of 5. It's nothing memorable, but it was a fun watch.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Release Date: 05/01/2009

DVD and Blu-Ray Release Date: 09/15/2009

U.S. Box Office as of 09/07/2009: $180 million

Foreign Box Office as of 09/07/2009: $184 million

Production Budget: $150 million

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Run time: 107 Minutes

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a spin off of the X-Men Trilogy (X-Men, 2000, X2, 2003, and X-Men: The Last Stand, 2006). It is exactly as the title suggests, Wolverine's childhood, struggles with mutant powers growing up, and memory loss is all covered.

What do Fox and Sony have in common? They're both more concerned with making money rather then making a good movie. In the box office, this movie is a hit worldwide making $363 million (even after the internet early release fiasco in April). More than doubling it's production budget probably makes the executives at Fox orgasm. Milking the franchise for all it's worth, fox has masterfully put together a cast including the Black Eyed Pea's Will.i.am, the hilarious Ryan Reynolds, and the brilliant Liev Schreiber (who I actually prefer as Sabertooth over Tyler Mane). It seems like they've included every possible incentive to get people to watch this movie. Good news for the marketing team, it worked. Bad news for us, the movie just wasn't that great. The screenplay written by Skip Woods (currently writing the A-Team, 2010) and David Benioff  (The Kite Runner, 2007) isn't great, but it's good enough to keep you interested. The one big beef I have with this movie: The CGI. C'mon Fox! With $150 million that's the kind of quality you give us? There are scenes with Hugh Jackman where his adamantium claws looked drawn on! I really hope if fox continues to follow up with sequels showing the origins of other X-men (which they most certainly will, because they love making money) then at least spend some of your budget on making the movie look good! As far as Hugh Jackman, I have no complaints. He did a good job in the first 3 X-men as Wolverine, and he continues to do an equally as impressive job with this movie. I can't even blame director Gavin Hood for how this movie turned out, because I'm sure he had Fox breathing down his neck to make this movie more profitable. 

I'm going to give X-Men Origins: Wolverine a 2 out of 5 stars and a scolding finger to Twentieth Century Fox for making yet another unmemorable super hero movie. For customers, my advice is rent this movie once and enjoy it for what it is, but I am not going to be buying this dvd or blu-ray. 

Rental Price is $4.99 (period of 5 days)

1 Disk DVD is priced at $19.99

Special Edition Blu-Ray (which comes with a small figure of Wolverine fighting Sabertooth) is priced at $34.99