*Warning, may be spoilers ahead*
(This review was originally written back in February 2011. It was produced for a film website, hence the more formal tone and structure.)
Todd Phillips’ directorial career up until 2009 contained a list of almost comedies. Old school was almost really funny; Starsky & Hutch was almost very good. Road Trip was well, Road Trip. His films were the definition of hit-and-miss.
Then 2009’s The Hangover came along, hit a home run at the box office and instantly became a comedy classic. So in his follow-up feature, Due Date, does Phillip’s continue with the success of The Hangover?
Not exactly.
The fact that Due Date isn’t an official remake of John Hughes’ Plane, Trains & Automobiles is quite surprising. Hollywood’s tendency to remake last generation’s classics has gone into overload in recent years. But whilst Due Date is more a homage to Steve Martins’ classic, the story is pretty much the same.
The odd couple in this case are Peter (Robert Downey Jr) and Ethan (Zach Galifianakis). Both are kicked off a flight after a misunderstanding and decide to drive together across the country to get to Los Angeles. Peter is desperate to get home to see the birth of his first child, Ethan is going to LA to follow his acting dream.
It’s a simple premise that unfortunately turns into a tortuous journey for both the characters and the audience.
One of the main problems is how schizophrenic Downey Jr’s central character is. Peter for the most part is a jerk with serious anger issues. It’s hard to feel sympathy for a character who spits on a dog and mocks the handicapped. But then (in one of the better scenes in the movie) Peter delivers an emotional monologue on how his Father left him when he was young.
Following that, we see him threatening to throw Ethan’s dead fathers ashes onto the freeway. In the course of the film Peter goes from angry jerk to doting father to insecure husband. There is no consistency and the audience don’t really engage with the character at all during the running time. The film does its best to show us how irritating Ethan is meant to be, but it’s never enough to justify the unpleasantness Peter bestows upon him.
Galifianakis does ok playing Ethan. It’s a similar performance that we’ve come to expect from him and he delivers some very funny lines and scenes. But they’re far and few between boring set pieces and Peter’s mean antics. The films is only a 99 minute running time but it still feels stretched out.
By the time the third act finally rolls around, you’ve seen so many pointless scenes and so much nastiness that you don’t care if they make it to LA or not. Appearances from Jamie Foxx, Danny McBride and Juliette Lewis come and go, but they add nothing to the overall film or to the comedy.
It just all ends up being very frustrating.
Verdict:
Due Date certainly has its funny moments, but you have to sit through a lot of unpleasantness to reach them. If you’re going to see one odd-couple-on-a-road-trip movie today, make it Planes, Trains & Automobiles.
2.5/5
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