Parto col folle

Due Date is simply one of those numerous mediocre comedies produced by Hollywood year after year. That's pretty much sums it all. One of the differentials of this comedy are the fact that Zack's character is more compelling than your typical set of characters in these comedies, although they are still far from being truly human characters: Zack's character is childlike and very naive, which helps the viewer to root a little for him. While iron man's character is pretty much a normal guy who is unsympathetic, like most normal guys: he is boring and hence performs the role of the straight guy of this show.

Recommended for those who like to kill two hours of their life in something other than watching TV series of videogames.

Saw it today at an advance screening in CU.

On one hand is a businessman, Peter Highman, who's trying to take a flight to LA to meet his wife who is about to have their child. On other hand is an aspiring actor, Ethan Tremblay, trying to make it big in Hollywood. They meet at the Atlanta airport and the adventure begins.

Having being denied boarding the flight, the reason for which I won't spoil here, they are forced to take a road trip to LA. Plus there's a dog with Ethan. Peter's already regretting the decision but has no choice. The next couple of days are full of surprises neither of them is ready for.

Feeling completely out of place, Peter is harassed by endless questions and embarrassed by outrageously hilarious behavior. He has no idea he will end up from a businessman in Atlanta to a guy with ripped clothes, a broken arm, a gunshot wound with handcuffs two days later.

There's never a dull moment in this movie, even though it has a few serious moments. It brings a refreshing feel to the movies this year and will make you laugh as much as, if not more than The Hangover. RDJ as always, is brilliant with the role of the utterly frustrated businessman who would kill Ethan if it was legal to do so. Zach is, well, perfect as the plump wannabe actor who says and does inappropriate things at the most inappropriate times. Get ready for another hilarious adventure from Todd Phillips! Oh and check yourself before you wreck yourself with laughter!

Decent watch, probably won't watch again, and can't whole-heartedly recommend.

This is an interesting movie to look at critically. The writing, mostly in the character work, feels weak. It actually has an interesting plot, for the most part: an idiot, through deceit, drags a jerk with him on a cross country road trip. It's a decent story, and I'd like to think of it as an spiritual predecessor to "The Hangover". The problem I have with it is that it feels like if there were better actors, then the characters would sell better. Then I remember it was Robert Downey Jr and Zach Galifinakas, and I'm not sure how much "better" you can get for these characters, meaning that they've probably already elevated the characters somewhat.

It feels like a lot of the movie is unnecessary, like antithetical Chekov's guns. Either it's for a tiny one time joke with little payoff, or it's part of a lot of work for situational comedy.

An example would be the dog, it really only has one significant joke in the entire movie (maybe 2), otherwise it's just a lot of maintenance.

The coffee can on the other hand is repetitively used to throughout the movie as it's part of the character themes.

I'm not saying it's not funny, if you like "Anger Management", then you might like this one, but I just think there are a lot better movies out there to watch.

Due Date is a comedy of mass frustration. I'm not just talking about what happens to the characters in the film, no, this is simply a frustrating comedy sit through. Here is an all-too-familiar road picture that pins together two people who hate each other and sends them cross-country on a madcap adventure. Needless to say, one guy is an average Joe that we identify with and the other is a blithering idiot who makes every moment a nonstop irritation. If this sounds, at all like the great Planes, Trains and Automobiles, you're not far off the mark.

That earlier movie was a great American comedy. It was funny and endearing because we cared about both parties. We wanted to see Steve Martin get home and we cared about John Candy's shower ring salesman despite all his goofy inefficiencies. Here the Martin role is filled by a very sour Robert Downey Jr. as Peter Highman, an uptight yuppie on his way from Atlanta to Los Angelas to witness the birth of his first child. The John Candy role is filled by Zach Galifianakis, as Ethan, an irritant on two legs who gets Peter thrown off the plane when he won't stop saying the word "bomb". Neither of these two characters are really funny enough to spend any amount of time with.

Peter is probably a nice guy. He seems to care about his wife but he spends the entire movie in a state of boiling anger and that's probably because he is saddled with a guy so insufferable that he could turn even the gentlest soul into a state of rage. Through a series of mishaps, mostly thanks to Ethan's idiocy, they get into every kind of trouble including: A fight with a veteran in a wheelchair; vehicular theft at the Mexican border; a shooting; a car accident; and questions about whether Peter's wife is pregnant with his child.

None of this stuff is really funny. It all seems episodic and some of it is quite violent and unpleasant. I think some of the comic energy that should make these scenes work is missing. We cringe when we should be laughing. I also think that most of the film's failure falls on the head of actor Zach Galifianakis who always seems to illicit the same effect on me as a noisy car alarm. I have seen him in three films now and he always plays the same annoying character: An oddball doofus who has a never-ending repertoire of annoying and disgusting habits. Ethan is a pothead with an annoying dog and even more annoying habits - all of which get under Peter's skin and sadly ours too. His presence, I swear, brings this movie to a dead stop and since he occupies at least 90% of it, you can imagine how unpleasant this movie is.

Due Date was directed by Todd Phillips, who made The Hangover, one of my favorite films of recent years. What that film had was a collection of likable characters and a narrative structure that pulled us from beginning to end. Here his story an episodic series of annoying moments and mean-spirited characters. It ranges from disgusting to irritating to violent and finally soft and cuddly. The problem is that very very rarely ever funny.

** (of four)

I had read mostly mediocre review of "Due Date", so I was already going into this movie with a negative impression, but I must confess that the reviews I had read hardly paid the proper respects to this movie, because I found "Due Date" to actually be quite nice.

It is a pretty straight forward comedy movie in the likes of "Planes, Trains & Automobiles" starring Steve Martin and John Candy, so if you are familiar with that classic comedy movie and liked it, then you will definitely like "Due Date" as well.

The story, shortly put, is Peter Highman (played by Robert Downey, Jr.) getting into trouble because of Ethan Tremblay (played by Zach Galifianakis) outside the airport, and from there, the funny and awkward situations just escalate.

I found the story to be likable and funny, and there was a lot of really great humor in the movie. Again, I refer to the Steve Martin and John Candy movie. Lots of far out there situations that make you laugh and sometimes even curl your toes in disbelief. Aside from the funny moments, then there was a nice theme with friendship and differences shining through here as well.

The acting in "Due Date" was right on the money and good. Downey and Galifianakis are really working great together, Highman being the one with his life neatly planned and everything usually in place, while Tremblay's life was chaotic and in disarray.

For a comedy, then "Due Date" delivered lots of entertainment and good laughs. If you enjoy comedies with more to it than just the average drunk and teen-sex themes, then "Due Date" is well worth checking out.