Overnight Delivery

Overnight Delivery
Directed by Jason Bloom
Produced by Dan Etheridge
Brad Krevoy
Steven Stabler
Written by Steven Bloom
Marc Sedaka
Starring Paul Rudd
Reese Witherspoon
Christine Taylor
Distributed by New Line Cinema
Release dates
  • April 7, 1998 (1998-04-07)
Running time
 87 minutes
Language English
Budget $10 million

Overnight Delivery is a 1998 romantic comedy film directed by Jason Bloom. It was rated PG-13 by the MPAA and released direct-to-video. It featured Reese Witherspoon and Paul Rudd, prior to both becoming considerably bigger film stars.

Plot

Wyatt Trips (Paul Rudd) is a student at Twin Cities College, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is in a long-distance relationship with his high school girlfriend, Kimberly Jasney (Christine Taylor), who is currently a student at the University of Memphis. Wyatt loves Kim, even though they have never consummated their relationship.

One day when Wyatt calls Kim, her roommate's reply leads him to believe that Kim is cheating on him with some guy named "The Ricker". Heartbroken, he goes to a strip club, gets drunk and becomes acquainted with one of the club's dancers, Ivy Miller (Reese Witherspoon). She suggests to Wyatt that he break up with Kim by sending her a scathing letter and a topless picture of himself with Ivy. Wyatt complies by sending the package through Global Express, an overnight delivery service.

The next morning, Kim calls Wyatt claiming "The Ricker" is a dog who she had to dogsit. Regretting his actions, he realizes he has 24 hours to retrieve the package before it gets to her. Wyatt and Ivy go to the Global Express office where, by chance, they encounter a spiteful classmate of Wyatt's (Sarah Silverman) who refuses to help them. Wyatt tries to talk the deliveryman (Larry Drake) into giving him the package, but he thinks Wyatt is a spy for the company, and refuses to break the rules.

Wyatt buys an air ticket to Memphis, but his co-passenger turns out to be a serial killer, John Dwayne Beezly (Tobin Bell), who takes him hostage. Wyatt escapes and runs into Ivy on the road. Fearing that if he went back to the airport, the FBI would question him and he would not make it to Memphis in time, he begs Ivy to drive him all the way. They happen upon the Global Express delivery truck at a gas station. Wyatt breaks into the truck and locates the package, but the truck unexpectedly drives off. Ivy gives chase but despite their efforts they fail to retrieve the package.

At their next stop, Des Moines, Iowa, airport officials do not allow Wyatt to board the connecting flight. So they decide to travel to St. Louis, Missouri to board another connecting flight. En route to St. Louis they have an argument which leads to an accident which ends up with their vehicle falling into the river. They have dinner in a cowboy diner and then try to run out on the check, but get arrested. After posting bail, they are let off and once again happen upon the delivery truck outside a diner. While the deliveryman is having dinner, Wyatt decides to empty the truck's gas tank in order to stall him, but a carelessly flung cigarette butt sets fire to the gas and causes the truck to explode. But even that doesn't stop the deliveryman (who is clearly over the edge by now) and he drives off. Wyatt and Ivy then steal a drunk's car and drive to Kim's campus.

After saying goodbye to Ivy, Wyatt gives chase to the delivery man and stops him in time. But after meeting Kim, Wyatt suddenly realizes that he loves Ivy and not Kim. After breaking up with her, he runs into another guy who is wearing the same kind of locket that Kim gave him long ago. Wyatt correctly surmises that the guy is none other than "The Ricker" and Kim was cheating on him after all. He allows the delivery man to deliver the package, and confesses his love to Ivy, who kisses him passionately.

Cast

Production

Writing

The film was written by Marc Sedaka, Steven Bloom. Kevin Smith worked on an early draft of the script, although he decided to have his name removed from the final product. The film was directed by Jason Bloom; this was his second film, his first being Bio-Dome. The producers include Roger Birbaum and Bradley Tenkel, and the production companies are the MPCA and Caravan Pictures. The film cost $10 million to produce and an extra $10 million was spent on advertising. The film lasts approximately 87 minutes.[1]

Locations

The entire film was shot in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. Exterior scenes were filmed in Minneapolis, Saint Paul and rural Minnesota. The film included landmarks such as Ground Zero nightclub, used as the strip club, Minneapolis convention center as the airport, the Stillwater Lift Bridge, and University of St. Thomas as The University of Memphis. The Embassy Suites Downtown St. Paul was used as The University of Memphis dormitory.

Casting

Joey Lauren Adams was originally going to skip out on her part in Chasing Amy to play Ivy in Overnight Delivery, but she lost the part to Reese Witherspoon. Kevin Smith—Adams' boyfriend at the time—has a documented grudge against Witherspoon and cited a rumored incident during the movie shoot.[2]

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes gives this movie 43%, with an average of 4.9 out of 10, which is considered a rotten review.[3]

Neal Justin, from the Star Tribune, had a negative view of the film. "In what should have been a good film produced in Minnesota," Neal says, "Overnight Delivery gets lost in a unworthy script." He states that all the right elements were present and puts blame on bad writing and inexperienced production. When talking about the potentially rising stars at the time, Rudd and Witherspoon, he says, "Unfortunately, they're not yet strong enough in Overnight Delivery (two stars out of five stars) to overcome predictable unimaginative writing."[4]

Rebecca Murray, writing for About.com, disagreed and gave Overnight Delivery a more positive review. She stated that the movie did not receive the attention it deserved by going straight to video, and it should have been given a better shot. "I actually laughed out loud at parts of Overnight Delivery and wish it had been given a better shot at theatrical run."[5]

References

  1. ↑ Justin Neal. "Not-so-special delivery; It's the most expensive Minnesota-made movie that you've never heard of. Here's how 'Overnight Delivery' got lost on its way to the theaters and shipped straight to video". Star Tribune. infoTrac Custom Newspapers. Retrieved 2009-11-15.
  2. ↑ http://www.viewaskew.com/press/psycomic/5.html
  3. ↑ "Overnight Delivery Movie Reviews". Rotten Tomoatoes. IGN Entertainment. Retrieved 2009-11-12.
  4. ↑ Neal Justin. "Overnight Delivery' gets lost in an unworthy script". Star tribune. infoTrac Custom Newspapers. Retrieved 2009-11-17.
  5. ↑ Rebecca Murray. "video pick of the week". About.com. Retrieved 2009-11-17.
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