After almost 20 years of hits (Swingers, Wedding Crashers) and flops (Fred Claus, The Watch), Vince Vaughn's career is in a strange place: he is obviously among the most well-known living comic film stars, yet audiences are also starting to display overt ambivalence toward him, perhaps because of the second-rate projects to which he has devoted his time in recent years, most of which do not complement his distinct presence in front of the camera, a certain friendly charm complicated by a macho, neurotic tension. The largely dull Delivery Man, part-time comedy, part-time sentimental family drama, will most definitely not be the film to ignite his career anew. The story of a marijuana growing ne'er-do-well, David, in debt to the mob who discovers his youthful sperm donations resulted in over 500 pregnancies due to a clerical mishap, it is not a disaster so much as an uninteresting and underdeveloped sigh of a film.

Most of the storyline is devoted to Vaughn's David secretly finding and helping his quote-unquote children without revealing his identity to them. A few of the sequences are comic in nature (he agrees, with disastrous results, to stand in at a coffee shop so one can go to an audition), while others aim for grit and tears (he finds one just in time to save her from an overdose). Try as it and its energetic star might, the course of events, including the obligatory third-act character growth (maturity at last!), never warms the heart as intended. In fact, it instead arouses a slight unease and various questions: why, for example, do hundreds of the children, suing to learn the identity of their shared biological father, place so much emphasis on a sperm donor, as if comforting concepts such as belonging and domestic stability will be denied to them until they can find out the name of the gentleman behind the curtain with a cup and an adult magazine? Mothers are, almost as a rule, absent, the pregnant girlfriend of Vaughn's character excepted.

There are other flaws and gaps in logic, too, such as the way the unexplained criminals to whom tens of thousands of dollars is reportedly owed come and go from the film, placed aside until an artificial injection of conflict and suspense is required. There are also a few pleasures, though, including a scene stealing turn by an invaluable Chris Pratt as a put-upon lawyer driven cynical and mad by the pressures of humdrum suburban fatherhood. He is easily the source of the film's most memorable and amusing moments.

C

I would love to know how the heart-string wrenching teenager with the severe mental and physical handicap found his way into the lawsuit to discover the donor's identity. Deleted scene, perhaps.

I was thinking yesterday about what happened to Vaughn after seeing this one on the painful road to becoming a flop. In the last few years when he became a film star, his biggest hits are when the focal point is a romance with a female lead (Wedding Crashers, The Break-Up, Couples Retreat, Four Christmases) whereas his biggest flops have been when the focal point is either Vince on his own (Delivery Man... I would say most of the audience is only familiar with Chris Pratt right now to say he's a co-star) or with male co-stars (The Dilemma, The Watch, The Internship).

I know the logic is flawed because Wedding Crashers is primarily Vaughn and Wilson, but still. I haven't seen any of his flops, and I'm sure he has girlfriends or wives in those films, but it wasn't a main selling point.

Yeah, I was very much wondering that too.

This story had way more potential, but was sadly untouched. David's right - Chris Pratt's about the only element of the film that works. I'm excited to see him take on some lead roles over the next year.

C+

Delivery Man

It's kind of crap. Vince Vaughn has lost all the comedic talent he seemingly once had (Wedding Crashers) and Chris Pratt had to clear up his mess. Bad script, lame soppiness, and overall just a bore. Stupid story that would never play out in real life as it did in the film (533 random strangers are so happy for one guy's "first born" baby is ridiculous). The title is also not clever at all, despite whoever chose it thinking it is. It's just his day-to-day job title at the family business. It has no other connection to anything since he didn't deliver any of those children.

Chris Pratt had some good lines and made it work, whereas the only thing Vaughn made work was slipping on the dive board and falling into the water (that was really funny).

D

Saw it for the first time last weekend, it's unfunny and badly written
It kinda sucks when you realize the film starts with a good premise

D