The Student Newspaper of Saint Peter's Prep

The Petroc

The Student Newspaper of Saint Peter's Prep

The Petroc

The Student Newspaper of Saint Peter's Prep

The Petroc

Movie Review: Delivery Man

Delivery Man is the story of David Wozniak (played by Vince Vaughn), a forty-something ne’er-do-well who discovers that he has inadvertently fathered 533 children because of a mistake at a depository. This movie is a remake of the Canadian film Starbuck (which was David’s anonymous donor name). I had the pleasure of seeing both of those movies back-to-back. Foreign films are often remade into American versions, like the French La Cage Aux Folles (“The Birdcage”) and the Chinese Internal Affairs (“The Departed”). Often when a film is a hit in another country, it gets an Americanized version so it will do better for American audiences. I find it interesting that people cannot just watch a whole movie with subtitles, but that is beside the point.

Delivery Man is almost a word-for-word remake of Starbuck. David is a loser who keeps screwing up every job he is given, and also owes $80,000 to some loan sharks. But when he discovers that his girlfriend is pregnant, he feels that this child will bring order to his life. This is a lot for him to handle in the beginning, but things get worse when he returns home to discover a man claiming that he is the father of over 500 other children and that 142 of them are now suing the clinic to discover his identity. He receives a stack of profiles on all of his children. The majority from this point on follows Wozniak (Vaughn) as he visits and helps his “children” as a type of guardian-figure.

This film has a great premise, a truly original and fresh idea that both the Canadian and American film really run with. As time goes on, we see the development of David, what he learns from his children, and what he means to them. There are some powerful messages about parenthood, and some great humor thrown is as well.

But of course, as similar as the two films are, there are a few things that made the original better. First off, the original had some artistic scenes that always got me more involved in each moment, something the remack lacked. For example, the courtroom scene where David’s lawyer is fighting to keep him anonymous has no dialogue, and is more of montage with music. In the remake, the arguments are heard, and there is the always irksome cliché in the closing statement from David’s lawyer. The one with no dialogue communicated everything through facial expressions, and the music made the scene so much more powerful.

Another difference between the two is the pace. I was shocked to discover that the remake is actually a longer film, as there were certain scenes that worked much better in the original, simply because they were slower. Another big point to mention is that Vince Vaughn could not play a convincing failure. I couldn’t see it. The original David was played by Patrick Huard, and he definitely pulled that look off much better. All of this is not to say that there were not some good, new additions. Besides the obvious American versions of foreign things (the famous soccer player is now a famous basketball player), there are a few extra lines and scenes added to the film to emphasize certain emotions (though sometimes they emphasize too much).

All in all, the original is the better film. But is it that good in general? For Starbuck, I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars. It was a fresh idea that was performed well, and while there are many moments in the film I felt were powerful, it was, in the end, an average cinematic experience. And for the newly released Delivery Man, I give it 3 stars. Much like the original, it is fair; it has less powerful moments than the first, and I feel that the original was much better. For anyone interested in this premise, I would suggest seeing the original, which is on Netflix. For any wanting to see the remake in theaters, I would wait until that comes to Netflix.