''The D Train'' (also known as ''Bad Bromance'') is a 2015 American

black comedy Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...

film written and directed by

Jarrad Paul Jarrad Paul (born June 20, 1976) is an American screenwriter, director, and actor. Early life and education Paul grew up in Miami, Florida. After graduating from high school, he moved to Los Angeles. Career Paul co-created and executive produ ...

and Andrew Mogel in their

directorial debuts This is a list of film directorial debuts in chronological order. The films and dates referred to are a director's first commercial cinematic release. Many film makers have directed works which were not commercially released, for example early work ...

, and stars

Jack Black Thomas Jacob Black (born August 28, 1969) is an American actor, comedian, and musician. He is known for his acting roles in the films '' High Fidelity'' (2000), ''Shallow Hal'' (2001), ''Orange County'' (2002), '' School of Rock'' (2003), ''E ...

and

James Marsden James Paul Marsden (born September 18, 1973) is an American actor, singer, and former model. Marsden began his acting career guest starring in the television shows '' Saved by the Bell: The New Class'' (1993), '' Touched by an Angel'' (1995), ' ...

. The film premiered at the 11th Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2015, and was released in the United States on May 8, 2015 by

IFC Films IFC Films is an American film production and distribution company based in New York. It is an offshoot of IFC owned by AMC Networks. It distributes mainly independent films under its own name, select foreign films and documentaries under its S ...

Premise

Dan Landsman (

) is the self-proclaimed chairman of his Pittsburgh high school's alumni committee. While planning the twenty-year reunion he has the idea of convincing Oliver Lawless (

), the most popular guy in his graduating class (and now a TV-commercial celebrity) to return, thinking that this will make people want to attend.

Cast

as Daniel Gregory Landsman (aka The D Train) *

as Oliver Lawless *

Kathryn Hahn Kathryn Marie Hahn (born July 23, 1973) is an American actress and comedian. She began her career on television, starring as grief counselor Lily Lebowski in the NBC crime drama series ''Crossing Jordan'' (2001–2007). Hahn gained prominence ap ...

as Stacey Landsman *

Jeffrey Tambor Jeffrey Michael Tambor (born July 8, 1944) is an American actor. He is known for his television roles such as Jeffrey Brookes, the uptight neighbor of Stanley and Helen Roper in the television sitcom ''The Ropers'' (1979–1980), as Hank Kings ...

as Bill Shurmur * Russell Posner as Zach Landsman *

Kyle Bornheimer Kyle Edward Bornheimer (born September 10, 1975) is an American actor and comedian known for his roles on the sitcoms ''Worst Week'', ''Brooklyn Nine-Nine'', '' Casual'', and '' Playing House''. Life and career Bornheimer was born in Mishawaka, ...

as Randy * Mike White as Jerry *

Henry Zebrowski Henry Thomas Zebrowski, Jr. (born May 1, 1984) is an American actor, podcast host, and comedian, known for his work on the Adult Swim series ''Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell'', the NBC series '' Heroes Reborn'', and the podcast ''The Last Podc ...

as Craig *

Denise Williamson Denise Williamson is an American actress best known for her work on '' Maggie'' (2015), '' Blacktino'' (2011) and ''The D Train ''The D Train'' (also known as ''Bad Bromance'') is a 2015 American black comedy film written and directed by Jarr ...

as Alyssa * Donna Duplantier as Taj * Han Soto as Dale * John-Paul Flaim as Radio Host * Eric Bickel as Radio Host * John Auville as Radio Host * Jason Bishop as Radio Host *

Dermot Mulroney Dermot Mulroney (born October 31, 1963) is an American actor. He is known for his roles in romantic comedy, western, and drama films. Appearing on screen since 1986, he is known for his work in various films such as '' Young Guns'' (1988), '' Stay ...

as himself

Production

On February 10, 2014, it was announced that

and

would star in a comedy film, directing debut of

and Andrew Mogel, which Black's Electric Dynamite produced with Mike White's RipCord Productions and Ben Latham-Jones and

Barnaby Thompson Barnaby David Waterhouse Thompson is a British film director and producer. He is best known for producing '' Wayne's World'', '' Spice World'', '' Kevin & Perry Go Large'' and '' An Ideal Husband'', as well as co-directing the ''St Trinians'' fil ...

Ealing Studios Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in West London. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on the site ever s ...

Filming

According to a casting call, the shooting was set to begin on March 17, 2014, in Metairie,

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

. Later on March 19, Black was spotted during the filming of ''The D Train'' in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

. Due to Black's schedule, the film was shot in just 21 days.

Music

In October 2014,

Andrew Dost Andrew Paul Dost (born April 10, 1983) is an American musician, singer and is member of the indie rock band Fun., in which he plays several instruments, mainly the piano. He was formerly a member of the indie rock band Anathallo from 2003 to 200 ...

was hired to compose the music for the film. A Pittsburgh sports radio segment playing when Dan arrives at a sports bar includes an audio cameo by John-Paul "JP" Flaim, Eric "EB" Bickel, Johnny "Cakes" Auville and Jason "Lurch" Bishop - the titular hosts of ''

The Sports Junkies The Sports Junkies, also known as The Junkies, are the hosts of an eponymous morning drive time radio show aired in the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. The hosts are John Auville, Eric Bickel, Jason Bishop, and John-Paul Flaim. Their s ...

'' in Washington - who portray Pittsburgh sports talk radio hosts. The Junkies also released audio of them reading their lines in studio.

Release

''The D Train'' was released theatrically in the United States on May 8, 2015, by

Box office

As of November 10, 2015, the film has grossed $771,317. In its opening weekend, the film grossed $447,524 from 1,009 theaters ($444 per theater), which is the 15th worst opening for a wide release film of all-time. In its second weekend, the film was pulled from 847 screens, and its weekend-to-weekend gross fell 96.5%, as it only earned $15,714 ($97 per theater).

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

the film has a rating of 53% based on 134 reviews, with an average rating of 5.70/10. The site's consensus reads, "''The D Train'' offers Jack Black a too-rare opportunity to showcase his range, but its story and characters are too sloppily conceived to hold together as a film." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

the film has a weighted average score of 55 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". The ''

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...

'' described the film as "cute, breezy fun".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:D Train 2015 films 2015 black comedy films American buddy films American black comedy films American LGBT-related films Films shot in Louisiana Films shot in New Orleans Ealing Studios films Films set in Pittsburgh 2015 directorial debut films 2015 LGBT-related films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films