| My rating | IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Critics | Audience | Critics | Audience | |
| 7.5/10 | 55/100 | 6.1/10 | 43% | 36% |
“Yay, you’re watching ‘The D Train!,”’ I heard from the guy who worked at the movie theater when I handed him my ticket. “Yes! Why? Is it that good?”, I asked curiously. “I didn’t watch it, but less than 150 people saw this movie at this theater for the past 3 days, so it probably won’t be here next week. So it’s a good thing you’re watching it before it’s gone”, he replied.
That dialogue scared my mom and I a little bit, because we went in under the impression that the movie would be terrible. However, “The D Train” is not terrible! It actually surprised me a little bit. I don’t usually enjoy Jack Black movies, but this one was a little different.
He plays Dan Landsman, a married man who lives a boring life and is the head of his high school reunion committee, celebrating 20 years of their graduation. He was never the cool guy at school, nor is he cool now (the other former students in the committee go out without inviting him). Sad due to the lack of RSVPs to the party, he has an epiphany while watching TV: he recognizes Oliver Lawless (James Marsden), the most popular guy from his high school, on a commercial and he decides to convince him to attend the reunion. In order to do so, he creates a lie and travels to Los Angeles to track Oliver down.
Not only does Dan find Oliver, but he also turns into some kind of teenager again, who does anything the popular guy does or says to be accepted as equally cool. Things, however, go a little out of proportion and Dan ends up doing more than he had signed up for to convince Oliver.
The twists on the plot were actually the things that saved the movie for me. I was under the impression that it would be one more of those high school reunion movies, where the popular guy turned out to be a loser and would try to make amendments and become someone better. That’s not what happens here, which turned the experience much more interesting.
Jack Black and James Marsden have great chemistry and the supporting cast is also really good (Kathryn Hahn and Jeffrey Tambor). I don’t know if you’ll have the chance to see it at the movies, but it is a good film to make you think about what people do in high school (and even after that) to become cool and popular, as if it is the best and most important thing in life.
