One of Them Days - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

One of Them Days



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
As we all know, there is no law like Murphy’s law. You know, those days where nothing can go right and everything you do to rectify the situation just amplifies the damage? Been there, done that, have the shirt to prove it. Anyways, that’s the basic premise of Keke Palmer’s throwback comedy One of Them Days. Attempting to borrow things from 2 Broke Girls, The Friday movies, and Keke Palmer’s own brand of comedy, One of Them Days is one of the rare R-rated comedies in this modern era, trying to bring adult humor back. The problem is, the film is pretty much devoid of the main ingredient for a comedy. Humor.

Dreux (spelled “Drew”, played by Keke Palmer herself) is having a terrible, no good, bad day. She’s scheduled for an interview at a marketing firm in hopes of getting out from under her crummy waitress job, her best friend Alyssa (SZA) gave their rent money to her “situationship” Keshawn (Joshua David Neal) to pay for them, and their landlord Uche (Rizi Timane) is about to kick the two of them (well, three including Keshawn’s hobosexual self) by the end of the day if they don’t get him his rent. Turns out that Keshawn “invested” the rent money instead of paying their landlord, so now the two girls have to figure out a way to come up with $1500 before 6:00 PM.

Oh boy, I really wanted to like One of Them Days as I’m a huge fan of early 2000s R-rated comedies, and this was supposedly a return to that style of humor. Films like Friday, The Barbershop and various other Ice Cube comedies were what I cut my teeth on as a rebellious teenager (yeah, I watched R-rated movies, I was a total bad boy) and I REALLY was hoping we were going to get some good laughs as Dreux and Alyssa stumble their way through the day trying to rustle up some quick cash. The only thing is, there’s no humor in the entire film. Keke and SZA play off each other well, but it’s the writing that’s at fault here. The script is a jumbled mess of overly slapstick humor with an over-reliance on stereotypical urban language.

Jokes come across as forced and clichéd, with moments where you can almost see the director holding up a sign telling the audience to laugh. And the few moments of levity were only enough to get the corner of my mouth to turn up a few times, with Katt Williams' role as the bum “Lucky” to give me the only actual chuckles in the entire film. Simply put, this effort just comes across as the dreaded “OK, this just isn’t funny” category. It’s not bad. It’s not offensive (comedy-wise), and it’s not going to give more than 5 or 6 people the ability to even crack a smile, let alone get a good belly laugh. The story itself is OK as a drama, but as a comedy, the film just feels rocky and uneven without any major payoff.




Rating:

Rated R for language throughout, sexual material, and brief drug use.




Video:

The 1080p disc is mastered in 2K with a 2.39:1 AVC framed transfer (which surprised me, as most comedies tend to gravitate towards 1.85:1 over 2.39:1 scope) that looks very nice and glossy looking. A very obvious digital shoot, One of Them Days is bright and shiny, with well-saturated primary shades and great black levels. Fine details are generally exquisite, but I noticed a weird artifact (or really a side effect of the shooting style) that would just mix in razor sharp scenes, with a scene change that would start our blurry in the background, only to sharpen up as the camera moved. It was this strange background softness that is obvious when you notice it, then just fixes itself as the camera shifts like a YouTube video adjusting to a higher resolution after buffering properly. That being said, this is a very colorful and sharp affair that does well on Blu-ray.









Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track turns out to be the best part of this entire Blu-ray package, with a robust mix that doesn’t mess around. It’s a fairly dialogue-heavy film, but the surrounds get some solid activity when Dreux and Alyssa make the rounds trying to run from Lolo or Berniece, and there’s even some good bass extension when her orange Charger makes an appearance. While it’s not going to shock and awe the listeners, the 5.1 lossless audio does everything right. Good vocals, good bass, and a nice robust use of surround channels when needed. While the movie may not be a hit, I really can’t complain about the audio at all.











Extras:

• One of Them Gag Reels
• Dream Team
• Block Party: The Cast
• What's In My Bag with Lucky

Final Score:

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One of Them Days has all of the earmarks of being influenced by late 90s and early 2000s black comedy, but comes across as very rocky and disjointed. There are moments where you can see the potential of the film with Alyssa and Dreux’s relationship, but it’s sabotaged by mediocre writing and a modern day sensibility crap that just feels as cringey on screen as it does in real life. Berniece and Lucky were about the only two characters in the film that gave me a chuckle, while the rest of the 97 minutes just….happens. The Blu-ray looks and sounds good in 1080p, but the extras are fairly mediocre comparatively. But at the end of the day, One of Them Days misses more than it ever hits, and falls into that “I’ll forget about it before I finish writing this review” level of enjoyment. But fans of the film should be pleased with the Sony-produced Blu-ray. Low Rental is about the best I can do.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Keke Palmer, SZA, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Lil Rel Howery, Katt Williams, Maude Apatow
Directed by: Lawrence Lamont
Written by: Syreeta Singleton
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, Spanish DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DVS 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Studio: Sony Pictures
Rated: R
Runtime: 97 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: April 1st, 2025

Recommendation: Low Rental