Name : Tom Long / Alias : Detroit News
A cringe-filled comic rumination on the cost of being cool, "The D Train" starts out as straight silliness and then turns to more aching matters.

Name : Sandy Cohen / Alias : Associated Press
The issue is the story. It's not just uneven, it's often unfunny: tinged with homophobia and centered on a wholly unlikeable, self-absorbed man.

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
"The D Train" may be a scant and rather unconvincing comedy, but it deserves credit for taking a risk.

Name : Richard Brody / Alias : New Yorker
[A] queasy, schematic, wanly sentimental comedy .

Name : Katharine Pushkar / Alias : New York Daily News
Black's narcissistic, obsessive, stunted Dan is so careless about all his relationships - with his wife, son, boss - that you wonder how he ever had them in the first place.

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
A bromantic comedy with a sharp edge of melancholy, this indie casts Jack Black and James Marsden in the sort of parts they play frequently, then pushes them toward pathos.

Name : Rex Reed / Alias : New York Observer
So many t's are uncrossed and i's undotted that the movie is a mess. Still, I was fascinated by what it might have been.

Name : James Rocchi / Alias : TheWrap
Black gives a career-highlight performance as an all-too-regular-guy tripped up by fame, fear, bad high school memories and a diabolically charming James Marsden in a strange, sharp comedy.

Name : Mick LaSalle / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
It should be obvious by now that Black is much more than a funny fellow. This is a good actor with a particular strength at playing protected, disturbed personalities - secretly angry people trying with all their might to be something they're not.

Name : Todd McCarthy / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
Some may buy it, but from several perspectives what takes place simply seems beyond the pale dramatically; it's hard to believe things would go as far as they do.

Name : Rene Rodriguez / Alias : Miami Herald
The movie flirts with a great darkness about disillusionment and self-loathing even as it races around spinning comedic plates. Too bad the filmmakers lose their nerve by film's end.

Name : Joe Williams / Alias : St. Louis Post-Dispatch
While Black is painfully effective as the dork who drops slangy kudos on his new BFF, Marsden is a revelation.

Name : Alan Scherstuhl / Alias : Village Voice
The D Train has one great idea, a couple strong jokes, and a void at its center - a man who is only believable when he briefly becomes specific.

Name : Barbara VanDenburgh / Alias : Arizona Republic
The film goes off the beaten path to tell a very familiar story in an unfamiliar way, turning the mismatched buddy dynamic Black and Marsden had developed into something much more complicated and interesting.

Name : Manohla Dargis / Alias : New York Times
For long stretches, "The D Train" serves as a commodious vehicle for Mr. Black, who, like the best comic performers, never seems remotely concerned about going too big or risking the audience's love.

Name : Mark Jenkins / Alias : NPR
The filmmakers proceed as if they're making a conventional high-school comedy, papering over the holes in the script with pop songs.

Name : Mike D'Angelo / Alias : AV Club
It's a mess, but it's a commendable mess. Bonus points for ambition and nerve.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
Nothing about "The D Train" feels the least bit authentic, and worse, little about it is funny. That's a deadly recipe for a dark comedy.

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
Andrew Mogel and Jarrad Paul, making their directorial debut, manage the difficult task of keeping the audience engaged even though both of the main characters are unlikable.

Name : Claudia Puig / Alias : USA Today
The D Train is long on high-concept comedy, then runs out of steam and becomes a forced and far-fetched drama.

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
Some critics are getting all up in the face of this audacious dark comedy for, well, being audacious. What are we supposed think about a movie that doesn't conform to formula? I'd start with grateful.

Name : Robert Abele / Alias : Los Angeles Times
A recognizably delusional schlub sits at the center of the loser comedy "The D Train," thanks to the sad-sack acumen of Jack Black.

Name : Moira MacDonald / Alias : Seattle Times
Writer/directors Jarrad Paul and Andrew Mogel let the movie run out of steam a bit before its ending (things get weirdly gooey), but Black keeps us hanging on as "The D Train" swerves; you hope that, somehow, he'll get through the journey safely.

Name : Justin Chang / Alias : Variety
Edgy and soft, audacious and coy, a largely enjoyable letdown.

Name : Kyle Smith / Alias : New York Post
"The D Train" is a good-humored, warm-hearted movie in which Black, as usual, excels.

Name : Bilge Ebiri / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
The last act of The D Train becomes a hilarious, deeply weird, and ultimately touching medley of delusion, humiliation, and friendship.

Name : Tom Russo / Alias : Boston Globe
Any real resonance gets swallowed up by a story that's excruciatingly uncomfortable rather than genuinely funny.

Name : David Ehrlich / Alias : Time Out
The D Train ultimately generates so few laughs from its thin "be yourself" message that a commendable refusal to gawk at the gay stuff is all that keeps it on track.

Name : John Anderson / Alias : Wall Street Journal
While it dwells in a much darker realm than American humor generally ventures into, what it uncovers is worth a stare. Maybe even a shudder.

Name : Ben Sachs / Alias : Chicago Reader
For a vulgar American comedy, this is refreshingly low-key and generous. I admired its intentions without finding it all that funny.

Name : Ann Hornaday / Alias : Washington Post
"The D Train" is far from perfect - up to and including the waste of Kathryn Hahn in a lifeless, stereotypical role as Dan's wife - but it has its moments. And most of them belong to Marsden.