“The Hangover” is the most successful R-rated comedy of all time, and I noticed that Philips tended to draw from many of the aspects, such as the gross-out humor, that provided laughs throughout his first film.
“Due Date” does not match up to the modern-day classic of “The Hangover.” But still manages to knock out a fair number of laughs, only to be deprived of becoming a great comedy classic because of the lack of depth and plot.
The plot is pretty standard, and similar to “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” staring Steven Martin and John Candy. This time, Downey and Galifianakis take over the roles and embark on a road trip of their own.
Peter Highman (Downey) and Ethan Tremblay (Galifianakis) first meet at the Atlanta Airport. It is here where Ethan knocks the door off of Peter’s car with his beater forcing them to talk. Ethan is a heavy-set bearded man with the maturity level of a young child and tells Peter that he is drunk from a six-pack of 40’s that he and a friend drank on the way there. Peter, an architect, is a well organized man who is on a tight schedule and has a very important meeting to make.
The movie follows the typical road trip movie involving a strange duo. Someone is running late. Then Galifianakis’s character, the one who causes all of the problems, joins the ride, setting the scene for the rest of the movie.
Ethan is the type of person who carries around bad karma with him everywhere. He projects the bad karma onto whoever is around him; in this case it happens to be Peter.
The trip takes place because Ethan, who is on the same flight as Peter, sits next to him on the plane and insists on using words such as “bomb” and “terrorist.” They both eventually are removed from the plane.
The trip then switches to their car, where Peter and Ethan travel from Atlanta across the country to Los Angeles so that Peter can be with his wife Sarah (Michelle Monaghan) during the birth of their first child. Ethan has another reason for wanting to get to Los Angeles; he wants to be a movie star.
Now the plot stops.
During the trip, the odd duo makes many pit stops including going to see one of Peter’s old friends (Jamie Foxx) and Ethan’s practitioner (Juliette Louis) who is a pot dealer. The encounters with the supporting cast provide for the strongest laughs of the movie.
Downey, in my opinion, is one of the best actors in Hollywood today and plays his character with more passion and wit than is actually required for the role. This is also one of the funniest roles he has played, aside from the brilliantly portrayed character in the dark comedy “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.”
Galifianakis is a comedic powerhouse who provides the more noticeable laughs. The only problem with Ethan is that even though the character is funny and does win over Peter’s heart, he never truly grabbed mine, and I am not sure why Peter didn’t walk away when he had the chance.
The film should provide more than enough laughs to please audiences, but if falls short on supplying a strong enough story to keep it from coming unglued.
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