Delivery Man (Vince Vaughn)

(Amazon UK link)

I don’t remember where this DVD came from. It’s not something I put on my wishlist; perhaps it’s one my husband was given. Or perhaps it’s something we spotted in a supermarket in the UK, or even a charity shop, and thought it worth watching. Whatever the reason, it’s been in our unwatched DVD drawer for some time, until we finally decided to watch it last night.

‘Delivery Man’ is about the somewhat hapless David (Vince Vaughn) who works as a meat delivery man in the family business. He has clearly made some poor decisions in the past, and is far too easily distractible, as he regularly arrives late to work, or fails to make deliveries in time. On the other hand, he’s friendly and has a soft heart.

I rather wish we hadn’t read the blurb on the back, which gives away the huge plot twist that shatters David’s life when he learns something so unexpected that he doesn’t know how to deal with it. Since I had read it, I saw the early part of the film - setting the scene with his family, and girlfriend, and his general cluelessness - almost as filler, rather than relaxing and enjoying the story as it unfolded. I liked the scenes with his lawyer friend (Chris Pratt) and his four rather wild children, but was waiting for him to find out what I knew was coming...

The second part of the film follows him as he comes to terms with the incredible news he has been given, gets involved in a possible court case, and gets to know several individual people whom he would not otherwise have met. To say more would give away the storyline; suffice it to say that David appears as a likeable person with a very warm heart, a bit of a fish out of water in his family who are more practical and hard-working, albeit less intelligent.

It’s rated 12 (PG-13 in the US), which is about right given the nature of the story; I doubt if it would be of any interest to anyone younger, in any case. There’s a bit of bad language, and several innuendoes that are relevant to the plot. There are also one or two intense scenes and hints of violence, though none shown.

All in all, we enjoyed it even if the ending is somewhat predictable. The acting is all rather caricatured, but then the story itself is bizarre and unrealistic, and it’s certainly rather different from anything we had seen before.

Having said that, apparently ‘Delivery Man’ was a re-make of a former film by the same director, which was called ‘Starbuck’. We haven’t seen that, but some viewers of both claim that the original is better.

Review copyright 2016 Sue's DVD Reviews