Una notte da matricole

In all honesty, when I saw that Jack Black and James Marsden had made a movie together I thought: "oh this might be cool", because I like both of them.

But when I read the plot summary: "The head of the high school reunion committee has to persuade the most popular guy in school to join them in the reunion" my expectations fell way down to the floor.

The idea of a high shcool reunion is really not something I would even bother going to due to many different things so it lost me in the relation to the material factor and it just didn't sound like a very good premise for a movie.

And in a sense it isn't, and it didn't pull me in right away but eventually once James Marsden got into the picture it did and became a lot different from what I expected of the movie, it actually became rather moving in the end.

It's a movie that deals with identity, popularity, sexuality and parenthood and it does so in quite an unusual rather non PC way so if you are a prude you might not appreciate some of the events taking place, I however did and thought it was a breath of fresh air.

DrtBlvd a user here, has an interesting view on this movie and one personally think and can stand behind too. I hadn't read anything about this, neither had I seen the trailer. So I had no idea what this would be about. I actually thought based on the cover this would be something along the lines of "School of Rock". It couldn't be farther away if it tried (though I can't say for sure if it wasn't the intention anyway to be as far away from a comedy like that in the first place).

Jack Black has some of his usual shticks, but it's more than that. It has themes about self identity, about growing up and especially about being who you are and not seeking being someone you are not. In the end we are all heroes (in our own story). Maybe it takes a movie like this to realize it for some, maybe some find it redundant. Whatever the case, this is entertaining, but also raises some interesting thoughts and questions ... but yeah the ending was a bit rushed ...

Another mislabeled movie... So no wonder that people who expected to have mindless fun watching Jack Black in a typical comic role he used to play many times before and James Marsden in a role similar to the ones he played brilliantly in Sex drive or Death at a funeral, got unexpectedly hit with quite dark theme with no many things to laugh at and disappointed. At first, I was disappointed too, but somewhere at the middle I realized that the movie it self is good, that the theme is important and that above mentioned (but all the others too) actors did amazing job. I blame the marketing of this movie, poster, but you too dear IMDb for providing wrong info on a movie category and misleading synopsis. So, in conclusion - as a comedy, this one is quite bad, but as a drama, it's very nicely done.

3 and under are reserved for movies in which the acting is garbage. the acting in this movie is good.

the movie is the problem.

jack black has chops, but they're wasted in this movie. mr. marsden also sells it. the acting isn't what's wrong with this movie. what's wrong is: what? why did we, the audience, just watch this? it was everywhere, all over the place, and had no landing. it just sort of was.

in a few weeks someone will be talking to me about the movie about that guy at the reunion where he got buttf*cked, and i'll say: "Idunno man. Idunno what you're talking about." Then he'll mention Jack Black, and I'll say, "Oh, I think there was a Netflix thing that sucked where he was a salesman of some kind, and that dude from the transgender show who is really popular was his boss." we'll both agree that that's the movie we both saw, then we'll go back to our desks.

the end.

that's where this ends.

I was a little surprised by this movie, because it had some layers that I didn't really expect. Now, I can't go into much detail about these layers, because I want to be totally spoiler free, but they are there.

The D Train is listed as a comedy, but I think it's more of a comedy/drama, because, like I said, it's not all silly fun. The comedy is often silly, it is Jack Black after all, but when it is serious, it is serious. I kind of felt for Jack Blacks character. He does some dumb stuff indeed, but he is also tossed into a couple of situations he doesn't know quite how to tackle. (here those aforementioned layers comes to play)

I don't laugh that easily, so when I watch a comedy I first and foremost want to be entertained, not laugh. And I was entertained by this movie. It did make me chuckle a couple times too, though.

I think part of the reason for this movies relatively low score (here on IMDb) is exactly that it is not a clean comedy, and definitely not a clean drama, it falls between two chairs, and maybe some are confused by that. We do love to define stuff, don't we? Us humanoids that is. Yes we do.

Anyway, it's an alright movie with some heart, some drama and some goofiness. Not your worst, not your best.