Due Date, the newest film from Director Todd Phillips (The Hangover), is now available on Blu-ray. Due Date reunites Phillips with Hangover star Zach Galifianakis, and adds Iron Man himself, Robert Downey Jr, to his newest comedic endeavor.
Spoiler Alert!
This latest road trip picture focuses on Peter Highman (Robert Downey Jr), an uptight architect and an expectant father, who finds himself in a surprising situation as he is mistakenly kicked out of first class while trying to get home from Atlanta to L.A, just in time for his wife to have their first child, via a scheduled C-Section. He’s tasered, and then promptly put on a no-fly list (thanks to You Know Who). Peter’s wife (Michelle Monaghan) looks pregnant, but is not very perplexed by the fact that her husband gets hijacked by the hijinks of Galifianakis’s budding actor Ethan Tremblay. With his bags and wallet left on the plane, Pete has no choice but to hitch a ride with Ethan and agrees to travel with him cross country to make it in time for his child’s birth.
It is almost impossible to do a road trip movie and not include terrific scenery of the U.S. of A., but aside from a fleeting glimpse of the north rim of the Grand Canyon, they might have filmed this movie in a parking lot. Guest shots by Danny McBride playing a very unhappy Western Union Employee with a wicked backhand, Juliette Lewis, playing a medical Marijuana dealer with parenting lapses, and Jaime Fox briefly appearing as a good friend of Pete’s who used to date his wife (and maybe much more), all fail to move us along. We’re just along for the ride with Pete, Ethan and his dog, Sonny, who likes to spank the monkey along with his master.
Pete survives car crashes, broken bones, exceptionally bad coffee, a side trip to Mexico, and even a gun shot wound. Unfortunately, he can’t overcome the total lack of character development and unexplained changes in his feelings for his travel buddy who puts new meaning into the term “justifiable homicide”. The supreme irony is that once Zach’s waiting-to-be-discovered actor actually makes it to Hollywood, or as Pete calls it, ‘L.A’., there is a very pleasant surprise with Charlie Sheen actually just acting – how refreshing! It makes you wonder what type of movie could have been made if Pete and Ethan had actually “buddied” up on the five-and-a-half-hour flight from Atlanta to L.A, and if we would have seen how Zach’s pot-addled persona would have hooked up with Sheen, and fit right in. Now that would have been an interesting trip.
Special Features
-Complete Two and A Half Men Scene featuring Ethan Tremblay- Hey look, everyone! It’s Charlie Sheen! People can’t get enough of the guy. Now you get to see him hanging out with Zach Galifinakis. Good times.
-Additional Scenes
-Due Date: Action Mash-Up: Compilation of the Physical Comedy from the film.
-Due Date: Too Many Questions Mash-Up: What makes Ethan the most annoying guy with whom you could ever be stuck in a car? Now you can relive all of the awkward moments from the movie in a shorter time span.
-Gag Reel
-5.1 Digital Audio
-1080p Video
-DVD copy of the feature film
-Digital copy of the feature film
Overall
To say that Due Date is labored is a colossal understatement. Everyone in this movie seemed to really phone-in their performances and it shows. Downey Jr acts as though he were obligated to do this film and really doesn’t want to be there, and Zach Galifianakis playing his typical man-child de jour is a journey to nowhere. There is a total disconnect between the audience and the characters, and we don’t ever get to a point where we feel a bond with the story at hand. I love the actors involved in this film and that’s why I wanted to give it a try, but I feel very let down by all parties involved.
ComicsOnline gives Due Date – 2 out of 5 movies that had fantastic and wasted potential.
Get your copy of Due Date at Amazon.
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