Delivered (1998) Reviews

• modest, solid little entertainment

  bartleby132002-05-15

  flick takes the STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, WITH A FRIEND LIKE HARRY, etc. model of an unwanted double committing crimes that act to frame the hero because they fit with his motives. it's an old premise; in fact, everything about this unpretentious low-budgeter has the feel of a well-worn baseball glove- old but sturdy, tried but true, comfortably threadbare. you know all the grooves at first touch. the neat little spin here is the setting of post-secondary discontent; the hero is the disaffected misanthrope who scorns pretensions in others while doing nothing himself- a type so familiar to anyone under 35, especially in a college setting, that it's well on its way to becoming a new cliche. the bruno to his guy is a cutesy little psycho, hip and self-assured, who carries out the innocent's bitter "f___ the world" thoughts....it's simple stuff, really, but the film's wonderfully modest ambitions actually felt like a relief to me. it aims low and hits bang on; there's nothing at all wrong with that. and i loved the disaffected-slacker spin on the whole thing; the flick is cool as a gentle admonishment of sour gen-x (or whatever it's called now) disaffection, giving an example of how a bad attitude will give you a bad time in life. misanthropy sucks, man.......

• Terrific

  MarkR-132000-05-27

  A terrific little film. Strickland gave a realistic and heartfelt performance of a guy dissatisfied with his life. The movie revolves around Strickland, who plays a pizza delivery guy who makes comments about his crappy life into his tape recorder. When said recorder falls into the hands of a serial killer, he sets out to kill the people who have ticked Strickland off. The final battle scene between our hero and the bad guy is surprising in that it does not follow the traditional rules of what happens in the last fight scene in most movies. Rent this film, and you might just be surprised with how much you like it and even identify with it.

• Will, Save Me

  TemporaryOne-12017-02-21

  This film is completely underrated. It's a film similar to Will Keenan and Patrick Hasson's Waiting, as well as Adrien Brody's Restaurant and the classic film Breaking Away, which are all about young adults who are stuck and know they're stuck, with little or no chance of breaking free. Death By Pizza (Delivered) is about an intelligent, free-thinking, artistic young adult (Will, played by David Strictland) who is stuck and waiting, bitter at the world's hypocrisy and bitter at his own lack of direction and desire. Will meets his nemesis, Reed (Ron Eldard), another intelligent young adult who's so bitter, he's chosen the path of crime. Both end up helping each other to free themselves of their bitterness, which enables them to get unstuck. For these young adults, getting unstuck, or, breaking free, can mean both forging ahead into life, and plunging downward into death. Will's life is filled with the trademarks of a young "stuck" adult: a soul-sucking, sweaty, under-paying job, crude customers, an ex-girlfriend who left him because he was unmotivated, a partial college education with no degree, a house filled with self-made art, and of course the new friend whose ung-dly choices help him to save himself.

• Great Movie For Slumber party

  willspizzaco1999-12-03

  The original story and funny compelling characters went over well for a teen girls slumber party movie (2 times now). I loved it, it was fun and moved quickly, no boring drawn out scenes. It is violent and has a little language (though most of it is covered up). Its a great movie. David Strickland was a terrific actor. Ron Eldard gave a wonderful performance. I watch it with the girls every time.

• An unoriginal movie about "original thought". Ironic? Does it matter?

  xorys2000-09-14

  This movie has a problem. Well... actually it has several problems. But the most pressing one is that the characters in it keep going on about "creativity" and "original thought"... and the main effect of this is to persistently draw attention to the fact that there's precious little in the way of original thought or real creativity in this film. An interesting question... is the writer being ironic? No, perhaps it isn't really an interesting question after all, since it doesn't really matter... the movie is basically going over ground already so well trodden it's threadbare, and it would take someone extremely naive to think this is "original"... and irony doesn't really alter anything. The movie also tries to cover its bets by including a "life affirming message". Recommended only to young folks with intellectual inclinations and not much of a clue.