Due Date

The new comedy from The Hangover director Todd Phillips, Due Date may not be to the level of that movie but is very funny for most of its run. Robert Downey Jr and Zack Galifinakis are both well cast as the films leads and have a chemistry that really pushes the film forward. Watching Due Date I kept thinking of two previous movies.

First off, Zack Galifinakis is not technically playing the same character he portrayed in The Hangover but the only difference I can see is his name. He essentially has all the same character traits that made us laugh last time. I don’t know how long he can get by playing the same dude every time but he doesn’t seem to have worn out his welcome yet. Just watching him walk is hilarious.

The second movie I kept thinking about was the amazing 1980’s John Hughes film Planes Trains and Automobiles. The plot is almost exactly the same. Two guys are stuck on a trip across country with one another. One is a jerk (Steve Martin, Robert Downey Jr) and the other is a heavyset nightmare who has a good heart in the end (John Candy, Zack Galifinakis). They hit many of the same notes but since this was made in 2010 everything is amped up to even more unbelievable extremes.

Due Date clearly takes the character from The Hangover and throws him through a loose remix of Planes Trains and Automobiles, but for the most part it works. I was laughing really hard for almost the whole time. However in the last 30 minutes the movie does contain an escape from authorities that diminished the rest of the film. I just couldn’t stop thinking there is no way they could get away with this.

Overall if you are a fan of Galifinakis or Todd Phillips this is worth checking out.