JACK BLACK AND JAMES MARSDEN IN THE D TRAIN

2015 rating: *1/2

Scenes in the trailer (and the poster image), where Jack Black’s former high school loser parties down with James Marsden’s popular cool guy at their class reunion, come and go in an 11th hour flash, and mean very little in one of the most falsely advertised motion pictures ever made: 

After a dry set-up involving Black seeking Marsden in Los Angeles, as his wife and son thinks he's on a business trip, leads to a shocking twist that’s buried in the promotion for two reasons: It might take away from those yearning for Jack to regain the comedy crown from the Zach Galifianakis and Josh Gad types who stole his funny fat guy thunder years ago. And for anyone who actually paid to see a comedy, you might want to hold on to their cash, or waste it on this weekend's other banal buddy flick, HOT PURSUIT, which is THE GODFATHER in comparison. The overall execution of what we do get from THE D TRAIN is awkward, slow-paced, and buries a vacant plot that suffers a bigger identity crisis than the dull and pointless main character.