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I\u2019ve never been to a high school reunion. The biggest reason is that I don\u2019t live in the same state, and if I\u2019m going to use my time off, I\u2019m going to do something cool with my family or friends. More importantly, and I think we\u2019re all on the same page here, I know what everybody\u2019s been up to over the last 20 years thanks to social media. Class reunions are pointless in this day and age because I can get anybody\u2019s life story, or at least the parts they share publicly, with a few keystrokes. It\u2019s no longer hot goss if it\u2019s not privileged information, so why bother?<\/p>\n
Jack Black\u2019s 2015 effort, The D Train, on the other hand, treats the 20-year high school reunion with the same amount of reverence as Romy and Michele did in the 90s. That movie made sense because the internet wasn\u2019t in every household, and you could totally show up, lie about who you are and what you\u2019ve accomplished, have everybody think you invented Post-Its until you get outed, and then the real humiliation ritual begins. I\u2019d totally show up to that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The D Train tries to capture that same energy, but then it veers into increasingly dark territory as Jack Black\u2019s Daniel Gregory spirals into the worst kind of midlife crisis. It\u2019s a funny movie. Everybody does what they\u2019re supposed to do. It\u2019s just that everything would have landed a lot harder if this movie came out in 2005, because that\u2019s where all the humor lives.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s Not 2015 Funny, But It Is 2005 Funny<\/p>\n
In The D Train, Daniel Gregory is the unofficial chairman of his Pittsburgh high school\u2019s alumni committee. He fancies himself a powerful man in this position, but everybody beneath him knows he\u2019s a joke. He writes long newsletters, often signing off with nicknames he gives himself, like \u201cThe D Man,\u201d \u201cD Money,\u201d and, as the title suggests, \u201cThe D Train.\u201d Desperate to prove his worth, Daniel is hellbent on making sure his 20-year reunion has the best turnout possible.<\/p>\n
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While channel surfing one night, he spots former classmate Oliver Lawless (James Marsden) in a Banana Boat commercial, and in his infinite wisdom decides that having a commercial celebrity show up will draw a crowd. Daniel flies out to Los Angeles using company resources after lying to his boss, Bill Shurmur (Jeffrey Tambor), about closing a deal with Oliver. Bill is the kind of boomer boss who \u201cdoesn\u2019t do emails,\u201d so he\u2019s incredibly gullible and puts all his trust in Daniel. Certainly this won\u2019t blow back later. Also, it\u2019s 2015, and this whole setup belongs in 2005. It gives off the same vibe as 2013\u2019s The Internship. It\u2019s kind of funny, but it would have been really funny about 10 years earlier.<\/p>\n
During his trip to LA, Daniel has a sexual encounter with Oliver, who hooks up with anybody. It\u2019s not that Oliver is actually gay. He\u2019s just promiscuous and takes what he can get, which just so happens to be Daniel, who just so happens to catch feelings.<\/p>\n
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Oliver comes back to Pittsburgh with Daniel, and their bromance blossoms as they prepare for the reunion. Oliver doesn\u2019t understand Daniel\u2019s infatuation with him. Oliver is the kind of guy who peaked in high school, and I don\u2019t mean that as a jab. Oliver knows he peaked in high school. He lives in a crappy apartment, occasionally lands commercial work, but mostly scrapes by while putting on a brave face.<\/p>\n
Daniel is the kind of guy who didn\u2019t peak in high school. In fact, he hasn\u2019t peaked yet. This isn\u2019t a jab either. Daniel has a well-paying job, a nice house, a wife (Kathryn Hahn<\/a>) who loves him, and he does his best with his teenage son Zach (Russell Posner). He just can\u2019t appreciate any of it because he never left his hometown, which to him feels like something he should be ashamed of. That makes Oliver the coolest guy in his eyes, because he got out and tried to do things his own way. Whether Oliver is successful or not is irrelevant. Daniel feels trapped, and now he\u2019s romantically mixed up with the cool kid from school because he thinks it will give his life meaning.<\/p>\n Jack Black Is Reliably Jack Black In The D Train<\/p>\n The D Train is an effective comedy, but it feels like a \u201ctoo little, too late\u201d kind of movie. Jack Black<\/a> is clearly having fun riffing on the material, but the material itself, even in 2015, feels like it\u2019s from a different era. The out-of-touch boss stuff would work better in small doses, but the many misdirects about how CCing on emails works, and how the internet works in general are so heavy-handed that it doesn\u2019t seem real. No guy running a successful company with dozens of employees under him is that clueless, even if he is technologically inept. <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/The-D-Train-2015-53-1-900x506.png\")
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