DUE DATE

Photos courtesy of Warner Bros.

Robert Downey, Jr. and Zach Galifianakis find themselves headed to Los Angeles via the roadway, instead of the airway in the buddy comedy, DUE DATE.

Downey’s Peter is scheduled to fly to LA, returning home to his pregnant wife Sarah, who’s scheduled for a C-section in a matter of days. Galifianakis’s Ethan is headed to Hollywood, in hopes of becoming an actor. Ethan’s father has recently passed away, and Ethan is now inspired to live out his dream.

After Peter and Ethan accidentally switch bags, and Ethan spiritedly uses the words terrorist and bomb aboard their flight, Peter and Ethan find themselves on the no-fly list. Ethan rents a car and plans on driving to Hollywood, but Peter, minus his seized wallet, license and credit cards, has no way to get there, until Ethan offers him a ride.

DUE DATE, as most critics have aptly dubbed it, is a modern day version of PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES. The set-up, mismatched pair and even events along the road, make DUE DATE an unmistakable homage to the Martin-Candy holiday classic.

Where DUE DATE errs, and PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES succeeded was in its humanity, or in DUE DATE’S case, lack thereof. Both Downey and Galifianakis are playing magnified extensions of their typical on-screen personas, with Peter as the extremely arrogant, self-absorbed elitist, and Galifianakis as the clueless, obnoxious fool. There are a substantial amount of laughs, due in large part to the tandem’s talents, but many laughs are lost due to the unlikable nature of Peter and Ethan.

Writer-director Todd Phillips, of OLD SCHOOL and THE HANGOVER fame, knows comedy and many of the film’s memorable moments capitalize on the absurdity of the situation and the two men involved. When the outlandish moments stop, we’re left with a snob and an idiot, and Phillips and a collection of co-writers create half-hearted back-stories in an effort to drum up empathy for our leads. It doesn’t work.

DUE DATE had all the makings of a laugh-out-loud romp, but it’s often hard to laugh at two men you’d leave stranded on the side of the highway.

Grade: C