DELIVERY MAN – The Blu Review

DELIVERY MAN is an American remake from Disney Studios of a French language film from the same director, Ken Scott. It tells the improbable (but true) tale of affable underachiever David Wozniak (played by Vince Vaughn), whose mundane life is turned upside down when he finds out that he fathered 533 children through sperm donations he made twenty years earlier. In debt to the mob, rejected by his pregnant girlfriend, things couldn’t look worse for David when he is hit with a lawsuit from 142 of the 533 twenty-somethings who want to know the identity of the mysterious donor.

When Melissa Howland reviewed DELIVERY MAN here at We Are Movie Geeks, she wrote: “DELIVERY MAN offers audiences a lot of laughs, and a lot of heart…..this is Vince Vaughn’s best role yet” (read all of Melissa’s review HERE).

Since I had just seen the French version, I skipped DELIVERY MAN when it played theatrically. Watching the Blu-ray, I was less impressed than Melissa. While the original French/Canadian version, titled STARBUCK (read my review of that film HERE), carefully straddled a thin line between poignant and maudlin, this Hollywood version went full-on mush. The film’s many side stories – David’s family issues, work responsibilities, love life, commitments to several of his more needy offspring and the whole subplot about owing money to the mob all distracted from the basic story about a man and his quest for fatherhood, turning a fun, lightweight film into a needlessly tedious one. Also, it was such a ridiculously faithful, scene-for scene (ore really, shot-for-shot) remake, that I wondered what the point of its existence was (besides the obvious English-language money grab).

Now DELIVERY MAN has been released on Blu-ray from Disney

The theatrical 2.40:1 aspect ratio has been faithfully retained in a 1080p transfer using the AVC codec. The detail of the image is very sharp and provides a surprising amount of depth, especially in the exterior shots. Closeups reveal fine textures in the actor’s faces and stitching in the costumes. However, there are a few scenes, specifically in low lit interior shots, where the colors are not well saturated, and colors look a little fuzzy. Black levels run deep and inky, and skin tones look natural and smooth. This is a very nice video presentation.

This release comes with a lossless DTS-HD 5.1 audio mix, and it sounds very good, yet it doesn’t quite blow you away. Maybe it’s because it’s just a simple comedy, however, I didn’t quite feel fully immersed in anything. Dialogue is always crystal clear and easy to understand, and is well balanced on the center speaker.

Disney’s DELIVERY MAN Blu comes with a few extras, mostly focusing on the film’s star

Building Family runs 16 minutes and features director Ken Scott, producer Andre Rouleau, and stars Vince Vaughn, Chris Pratt, Cobie Smulders, and a few of the actors who play members of Vaughn’s brood. They talk about what a great film they’ve made and how awesome Vaughn is.

Vince Vaughn: Off the Cuff runs 4 ½ minutes and show Vaughn improvising on set, outtakes, and interviews with cast and crew gushing over what a great guy he is.

Bloopers 4 ½ minutes of actors screwing up their lines. This was sorta fun when Burt Reynolds was doing it 35 years ago. At least this stuff doesn’t run during the closing credits.

Deleted Scene – just one that runs 90 seconds

Trailers: for Need for Speed and Thor: The Lost World.

Fans of lightweight, overly-sentimental comedies may fun much to enjoy in DELIVERY MAN, but I still recommend the French version, STARBUCK.