How you end up enjoying “Due Date” will depend on how much time you spend comparing it to other road trip movies that it resembles, namely “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.” For the most part, it follows the same story and pattern as that film of two guys who are an odd couple in the most inconvenient of ways, and they could not be anymore different from each other if they tried. Of course, they come to see the similarities they share and eventually end up becoming best friends not matter how unlikely it seems. For me, I tried my damndest not to compare the two because there’s no way Todd Phillips (the man behind “The Hangover”) latest film could even come close to topping that John Hughes classic. In the end, it shouldn’t matter because you are just looking to laugh at the movies, and this one certainly delivers in that regard. That’s all that matters, right?
Indeed, I laughed my ass off at a lot throughout “Due Date,” and we’re talking serious belly laughs which I never expect to get as much of like when I was a kid. Pairing Robert “Iron Man” Downey Jr. with Zach “Hangover” Galifianakis turned out to be a terrific piece of casting, and the two work very well off each other.
Robert Downey Jr. plays Peter Highman, an architect of the most seriously high-strung variety. Peter ended up reminding me of myself in junior high and high school when I took things and myself WAY TOO SERIOUSLY. When he comes into contact with Zach’s character of Ethan Tremblay, Peter’s luck quickly erodes as he stupidly ends up on a no fly list and is forced to go cross country by car. You see, Peter needs to get to
Zach’s character is not all that different from the one he played in “The Hangover” in that Ethan is so socially irresponsible that it makes you wonder if he has anything resembling self-awareness. I mean, we see him masturbating in the car while Peter is trying to get some sleep, and Ethan’s only suggestion is that Peter should close his eyes and not look. Of course, Peter’s problem has more to do with the sound. You can’t help but laugh out of sheer nervousness because the possibility of Ethan accidentally “exploding” over Peter certainly crosses ones mind, and that’s even if he’s not pointing in his general direction.
Robert basically plays the straight man to Zach’s crazy ass character, and they each managed to score laughs without trying to outdo one another which is cool. Zach is especially good here because he plays Ethan in all seriousness, never acting like he is in on the joke. Seriously, there are only a couple of comic actors who can really sell a line like this one:
“Dad, you’ve been like a father to me…”
Zach may very well wear out his welcome by playing this same type of character before he knows it, but you have to admit that he plays this character brilliantly.
Robert Downey Jr. still has his dry sense of humor, and those bewildered stares he shoots off in every other scene are priceless as they reflect our own bewilderment as to what is going on. Robert also has a classic scene in dealing with the annoying kids of a drug dealer which had me in hysterics in that things take an unexpected turn. I guess you can only be nice to kids for so long before you snap. Let’s just hope Peter doesn’t do that to his child when he gets older.
But if there’s anything “Due Date” is lacking in, it is with the screenplay as the characters lack any serious depth. Much of what goes on between Peter and Ethan has the feel of a sitcom which, while making you laugh out loud really hard, after awhile feels somewhat shallow. Zach has a little more to work with as Ethan, but Robert’s character is more often than not made out to be an unlikable prick. If it were another actor instead of Downey Jr. in the part, this could have very likely sunk the picture. I kept being reminded of how Ferris Bueller described his best friend Cameron:
“Pardon my French but Cameron is so tight that if you stuck a lump of coal up his ass, in two weeks you have a diamond.”
This is where those comparisons between “Due Date” and “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” become hard to ignore. In that one, Steve Martin and John Candy (he is still missed) played two men who were essentially good people but whose trip to
Going into “Due Date,” we know that it is not an original movie, but we end up being reminded of others which came before it and had such better developed and more memorable characters. But keep in mind, a lot of these criticisms I have of the movie really came to me a couple of days after I saw it. My initial reaction involved a lot of convulsions of laughter, and I am always thankful that there are still some movies that make me laugh to the point where I almost pass out. Where would we be without laughter like that in such hard times?
There are a couple of other actors worth mentioning here as well. Michelle Monaghan plays Peter’s pregnant wife, Sarah. Michelle is always a wonderful presence whenever she is onscreen, but she doesn’t have much to do other than wait around for her husband to show up. It’s always a shame when actresses get stuck with a character they can’t do much with. Juliette Lewis fares better as Heidi, a drug dealer giving Ethan his “medicinal” marijuana. Juliette has been making a comeback in movies, and she looks to be doing really well with this and “Conviction.”
Jamie Foxx is also here as Peter’s friend Darryl, but he’s actually not in the movie for that long. Jamie comes into the movie at around the midpoint and ends up disappearing far too soon. It would have been cooler actually if “Due Date” were a threesome with these actors as Jamie scores some good laughs, especially when he makes an embarrassing blunder while making coffee.
You also have Danny McBride doing his usual scene stealing work as Lonnie, a Western Union employee who does not take well to Peter’s snide remarks and will defend himself despite some physical difficulties (see the movie, and you’ll get what I mean). RZA has a cool cameo at the beginning as an airport screener, and he’s one of the cooler ones you could ever hope to find at the airport. Seeing him get into Downey Jr.’s face was one of the first real highlights.
Seriously, I did enjoy “Due Date” and had a good time. It’s hard not to recommend it as it has good actors and will have audiences in hysterics. But in retrospect, the aftertaste it leaves serves to show that it won’t have the same staying power as other road movies have had. If the script had more depth, it would have been even better than it already was. All the same, if you are looking for some good comedy, it’s hard to pass this one up.
**½ out of ****
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