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
Running time	87 minutes
Language	English
Budget	$10 million

Overnight Delivery is a 1998 romantic comedy film directed by Jason Bloom and 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. Trips loves Kim, even though they have never consummated their relationship.

One day when Trips 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 Trips that he get back at Kim by sending her an abusive letter and a topless picture of himself with Ivy. Trips complies by sending the package through Global Express, an overnight delivery service.

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

Trips 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. Trips escapes and runs into Ivy on the road. Fearing that if he went back to the airport, 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. Trips 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 Trips 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, Trips 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. Trips and Ivy then steal a drunk's car and drive to Kim's campus.

After saying goodbye to Ivy, Trips gives chase to the delivery man and stops him in time. But after meeting Kim, Trips 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 gifted to him long back. Trips 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

• Paul Rudd as Wyatt Trips
• Christine Taylor as Kimberly Jasney
• Reese Witherspoon as Ivy Miller
• Larry Drake as Hal Ipswich
• Sarah Silverman as Turran
• Stephen Yoakam as the SWAT Leader
• Tobin Bell as John Dwayne Beezly/Killer Beez
• Buff Sedlackek as the teacher
• Richard Cody as the rancher
• Tim Mcniff as the TV anchor
• Christie Ellis as Didi
• Alex DelPriore as George
• Nathan Frenzel as the singing waiter
• Matt Klemp as "The Ricker"

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 MPCA and Caravan Pictures. The film cost a total of $10 million to produce and an extra $10 million for 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.

Casting

Joey Lauren Adams was originally going to skip out on her part in Chasing Amy to play Ivy in this movie, 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]

Justine Neal from Star Tribune has the same negative views towards this movie. 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 disagrees and gives Overnight Delivery a decent 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

External links

• Overnight Delivery at the Internet Movie Database
• Overnight Delivery at Rotten Tomatoes
• Overnight Delivery at allmovie