Review: DUE DATE

Due Date stars Robert Downey Jnr and Zack Galifinakis, as well as Jamie Foxx and is directed by Todd Phillips.


My Verdict: B

As a synopsis/ idea/ outline it sounds very familiar to the old Trains, Planes and Automobiles format and, to be honest, I'm not sure anybody minds. Hollywood's a bit like that if we're frank... there's only so many stories that they exist in a framework where the story will kick off at around minute 11 and so on. Formula. Story by Numbers and, on paper, Due Date is no exception.

Where I think it's different is in the characters, although it sticks closely to road-movie formula. Downey Jnr plays Peter Highman, an architect, who needs to get home by Friday for the birth of his baby. Galifinakis plays Ethan Tremblay, an actor who is looking for fame in Hollywood. Due to some expertly scripted plotlines, the dimwitted Tremblay manages to get both he and Peter kicked off a plane under suspicion of terrorism. Long story short; they end up in a car together on their way to Hollywood.

All is looking well.

But it's a road movie and so there has to be problems. And problems there are... loads. An accidental crossing of the Mexican border, picking up weed from a strange woman who thinks perms are for sissys, a masturbating dog and a coffee can filled with the remains of a man are just some of the problems they face.

It's a good movie until the last act. Usually these movies work because there's an overriding sense that the assholes in the movie learned not to be assholes and change their lives. Due Date lacks this emotional suckerpunch, despite several times coming very close but consistently shying away. By creating such unlikeable characters and not giving them the proper send off to the audience, it begins to feel like a wasted journey. A funny but ultimately wasted journey with people who will never change. Our real lives are full of this so we don't want to be reminded of this at the end of an escape to the cinema... fantasy and happy endings all around please.