Review: Due Date

Robert Downey Jr. plays a somewhat uptight architect on his way home from a business trip to make it back in time for his wife Michelle Monaghan’s impending birth. He unfortunately runs into socially inept wannabe actor Zach Galifianakis and has an ‘incident’ with him that gets them thrown off a plane and put on a ‘no fly’ list. Further complications result in Downey having little choice but to accept Galifianakis’ offer of a ride home in a rental car. A long, exhausting, supremely irritating ride with one of the most off-putting human beings you could ever meet (Except you couldn’t meet him, he’s nothing like any real human being out there you’ll ever meet). Welcome to Downey’s hell, and likely a sizeable portion of the audience’s too. Juliette Lewis plays a pot dealer, Jamie Foxx plays a family friend of Downey’s and Monaghan’s, and Danny McBride (surprisingly unfunny) plays a wheelchair-bound Iraq war veteran whom Downey offends at one point.

I wasn’t a fan of Todd Phillips’ previous “The Hangover”, I found it full of unpleasant people, and unpleasant behaviour that I neither related to nor found much humour in. This 2010 so-called comedy, in addition to essentially ripping off “Planes, Trains, & Automobiles” (and botching it), manages to be even less funny than “The Hangover”. Downey gets a few good giggles from some of his reactions, and Jamie Foxx’s referring to Zach Galifianakis as ‘DeBarge’ was hilarious, even if I actually don’t think Galifianakis looks that much like anyone from the aforementioned R&B group. Other than that, this was disastrously unfunny. A big chunk of the reason for this is Zach Galifianakis, who I loathed in “The Hangover” too. Once again he is playing an insufferably annoying character (although at least this time there’s a few less sociopathic vibes coming from him) and once again, the screenplay wants us to spend way too much time with him, and ultimately like him on some level. I do not find Galifianakis the slightest bit funny or endearing, I hated this character passionately (for once Juliette Lewis is only the second most irritating presence on screen), and didn’t for one second as a result of his behaviour, believe in the trajectory that Robert Downey Jr.’s character goes on in relation to this character. If you’ve seen “Planes, Trains & Automobiles” (or almost any movie at all come to think of it), you’ll know or soon work out where that trajectory is headed, and it is entirely unbelievable. This guy is revolting, wholly off-putting, and stupefyingly socially/behaviourally oblivious, where John Candy was beneath the surface genial, good-natured, and well-meaning, if bumbling. There’s way too much surface to get beneath with this guy, I’m afraid Not that the Downey character is especially likeable, either, which also hurts things.

I get that Galifianakis was meant to be annoying in order for the dynamic to work, but this guy takes an ignorance of acceptable behaviours to such an unbelievable and unlikeable level that the dynamic is thrown too far off balance and is so unfunny, I just hated him with every fibre of my being and it affected my viewing of the film as a result. As was the case in “The Hangover”, Galifianakis seemed to be acting off-putting and revoltingly for the sake of it, suggesting a definite self-awareness, which to me makes it unfunny, stupid, and unrealistic.

This is such an extremely unlikeable, uncomfortable, and uninteresting experience overall. It’s also wholly predictable, clichéd, and unnecessary, to the point where even if you haven’t seen “Planes, Trains & Automobiles” (It’s a good film, go watch it now!), it still doesn’t go anywhere interesting or new. I mean, after “Meet the Parents”, I don’t think we need any more humour derived from the mishandling of a person’s ashes. It wasn’t original back then, but it was funny as hell and hard to top. It certainly wasn’t topped in this film.

People might think I’m making too much of things, but I also have to make mention of the scene where Galifianakis and Downey get stoned. Call me humourless, but I found it extremely uncomfortable, not just due to Downey’s drug past (admittedly I don’t think marijuana was an issue for him), but more specifically I remembered he had played a drug addict in a frighteningly real performance in “Less Than Zero”, back in 1987, where he was presumably not sober in real-life. I have more faith that Downey is clean now, but it just left me feeling uneasy and I’m not so sure if Downey should’ve tackled such material, at least in such a trivial manner. But maybe I’m just overreacting.

This is a sorry excuse for not just a comedy, but a film of any kind. I got almost no pleasure from this experience at all, but I suppose fans of “The Hangover” (of which there were many, it was a huge box-office hit for some bizarre reason) might respond to it a bit more favourably. The screenplay is by Alan R. Cohen, Alan Freedland, Adam Sztykiel, and Phillips himself, which is gobsmacking. You mean it took four people to do an unofficial remake of a script that John Hughes got right the first time all by himself?

Rating: D