Robert Downey, Jr. and Zach Galifianakis star in this buddy comedy about two guys traveling, road trip style, from the East Coast to Los Angeles. The story follows dad-to-be Peter Highman (Downey, Jr.) and wannabe "actor" Ethan Tremblay (Galifianakis) as they try and get from Atlanta to LA before the birth of Highman's child, a very small time frame of about three days.
Peter and Ethan cross paths at an airport- they end up switching bags and Peter gets busted with Ethan's smoking piece (and not for smoking tobacco). They end up sitting near each other on the airplane and, due to the free spirit that Ethan is and the high-strung neurotic that is Peter (weird, Robert Downey, Jr. plays a high-strung neurotic), they butt heads, get kicked off the airplane due to using words like "bomb" and "terrorism" and they each get slapped with a "no fly" charge.
Long story short, Peter needs to get to his pregnant wife, Sarah (Michelle Monaghan), in LA who is expecting to deliver her baby at the end of the week, and he has to ride with Ethan because he has no money due to a lost wallet. He has about three days to travel, via car with the guy who got him kicked off the airplane and thrown on the "no fly" list, from Atlanta to LA. Oh the adventures they're just going to get into!
Things obviously go wrong (cars gets destroyed, Peter's patience are tested), with the two butting heads throughout the road trip. Ethan, who recently lost his father, is carrying around his old man's ashes in a coffee can and it only gets weirder from there.
Due Date also has a pretty decent supporting cast. Jamie Foxx plays Peter's famous athlete friend Darryl, who Peter thinks may be having an affair with his wife. Juliette Lewis plays a drug dealer who hooks up Ethan with his glaucoma medicine; Todd Phillips steps in as her perm-hating boyfriend. Danny McBride plays a war veteran/Western Union representative who beats Downey, Jr's ass and RZA plays an airport screener who finds the pipe in Peter's luggage.
There's a lot of physical humor in this movie, almost entirely on Galifianakis' part, although there is a pretty funny scene where the two, who are both extremely high, get busted at the Mexican border. After some ridiculous antics, Ethan frees Peter from the Mexican border patrol via a high speed car chase, with Ethan driving a truck and Peter in a trailer attached to the hitch.
Peter and Ethan become friends at the end (obviously) and Ethan, who is obsessed with Two and a Half Men, ends up getting a few appearances on the show.
The best part of this film, and for me there really weren't many "best parts", was the acting of Downey, Jr. He can take a role like this one and act the hell out of it- it was impressive. Other than that, there were a few parts that made me chuckle... but not much.
The most frustrating thing about this movie was the acting of Galifianakis. I understand, he's supposed to play his typical role of the lovable moron, and that is expected for this film. But this... this was just bad. It was Alan from The Hangover meets Therman from Dinner for Schmucks, except an effeminate, wannabe actor who loves to smoke weed. SO FUNNY! It got to be really annoying after the first 20 minutes or so.
I think the main reason that I was so disappointed was because I really had high hopes for it. Robert Downey, Jr. and Zach Galifianakis are both great actors (or entertaining actors, at least), so when I first saw the trailers for this movie, I thought, "Oh, shit... this is gonna be awesome." Turns out, my initial reaction wasn't even close to how I felt at the end of the movie.
On the contrary, when I watched Grown Ups, I didn't really see any previews or hear much about it (except that it got pretty poor reviews), so my expectations were very low; the movie turned out to be hilarious and I'm really happy I watched it.
This wasn't a horrible movie, but it isn't one I would want to see a sequel of. Or to see again for that matter.
2 out of 5
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