Due Date Review

(3 votes, average: 3.67 out of 5)

 Loading ...

Following the success of The Hangover, Todd  Philips has returned to the genre that gave him his career, Road Comedy. And that film is Due Date starring Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis. And while the film has its moment, it’s for the most part a mixed bag of forced cheesy one liners and some genuinely funny scenes.

Taking the film piece by piece, the best part of it is Robert Downey Jr. Downey has always had a wonderful comedic sense about him that’s really come through recently in films such as Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Tropic Thunder and Sherlock Holmes. The difference in Due Date is that he’s applying that comedic wit to a down to earth, real world character. Peter Highman is just a normal guy with a bit of a temper. And some would argue that those kinds of characters, the characters that are just normal people are the hardest to pull off.

Throughout the film, Downey has genuinely funny moments, but those moments only come when he ‘s acting on his own. For example, one of his best scenes comes from a dialogue he has between himself and a coffee can off a highway. Only Downey could take a scene like that and make it believable.

On that flip side of that coin however is Zach Galifianakis. Unlike The Hangover where Galifianakis’s character was an idiot savant, his character in Due Date, Ethan Tremblay is just and idiot. There’s no real redeeming quality to him. And that isn’t to say the film didn’t’ try to give him heart felt moments. The issue is that those moments felt forced and unnatural at their best, and just annoying at their worst.

Some of these scenes include Tremblay buying “medication,” him acting very uncomfortably lucid in front of Peter in the car and a scene between him and his “father” at the Grand Canyon. I just couldn’t get behind him as a character.

There are also characters in this film that serve no purpose at all. The most notable of which is played by Jamie Foxx. Foxx’s character ends up posing a big question for Downey which is ultimately forgotten about and only revisited for about four seconds at the end of the film.

In fact, the majority of these side-characters felt like they were written in order to facilitate a joke that occurs later in the film, rather than jokes being written for a character that has been created.

One a technical front, the film is standard. Unlike The Hangover which seemed to have a visual flair that really lends itself to the story, this films just seems… Flat.

Overall, Due Date will serve its purpose for the one hundred minutes you spend in the theater, but you will forget it very quickly after that. Don’t go in expecting another Hangover, hell don’t go in expecting a traditional road movie. Just go in expecting nothing, and your expectations will be met.

5.5/10