"Due Date" (2010)

Rating: R:15

Genre: Comedy

Directed By: Todd Phillips

Written By: Alan R. Cohen, Alan Freedland, Adam Sztykiel, Todd Phillips

Released: November 5^th, 2010

Runtime: 100 minutes

Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures

Summary:

Peter Highman (Robert Downey Jr.) will be a dad for the first time when his wife gives birth in five days. He intends to catch a flight home from Atlanta so he can be there for the delivery, but a chance encounter with aspiring actor Ethan Tremblay (Zach Galifianakis) throws a monkey wrench into his plans. Desperate to reach his wife before their baby is born, Peter's sanity is tested when he must take a road trip cross-country with dog-toting Ethan.

Review:

This came on the TV last night for Father’s Day. I was watching it for a while trying to figure out why this film was chosen for the occasion and then I realised there’s quite a few references to fathers and it seems to be a little theme the film’s got going on; from the expectant father, Robert Downey Jr’s character, to the recent death of Zach Galifianakis’s character’s father.

As most buddy-films/bromance-films go, these two spend much of the film getting on each other’s nerves. Robert Downey Jr’s character is a cranky soul for a lot of the story. He comes around eventually and we get to see his softer side. But it takes a while. Zach Galifianakis seems to be very typecast in these kinds of roles; The Hangover trilogy, It’s Kind of a Funny Story… This is all well and good, if he’s good at this kind of role then more power to him, but it would be nice to stumble upon a film where he’s playing something a little different. Maybe that film is out there and I just haven’t come across it yet.

The plot and structure is actually pretty similar to The Hangover movies quite honestly. There are some funny moments. One such scene that did make me laugh out loud was when Robert Downey Jr and Jaimie Foxx are driving this truck. Zach Galifianakis is sitting in the back trailer and they drive over speed bumps at speed, sending Zach Galifianakis’ character into the air.

As far as road-trip themed comedies go, this isn’t the worst one out there. There are films that have done it better, for sure this had the potential to be way funnier than it was. That being said, I still thought it did the job it set out to do just fine.

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