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Due Date

Posted by Buddy Acker on March 3, 2011 at 5:31 AM

On DVD now:

Due Date
A road trip to nowhere

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Due Date starts out with a guffaw, settles to a snicker, and then dissolves into silence and nothingness. It’s as if halfway through the screenplay the writers went, “Okay, that’s enough comedy. Let’s just throw in a bunch of random stuff and see how people respond.” It doesn’t work. I won’t lie; I laughed at quite a bit of the lines in the movie. That does not, and I repeat DOES NOT, make it good. What the main characters, Peter Highman (Robert Downey Jr.) and Ethan Tremblay/Ethan Chase (Zach Galifianakis), say is funny from time to time but the plot is falling apart around them.

I covered my eyes in frustration as Tremblay/Chase fell asleep at the wheel of a car and it careened off a flyover, nearly killing him and Highman in the process. That was ridiculous and unnecessary. Another example would be the scene involving the two getting high and unintentionally arriving at the Mexican border. Tremblay’s explanation to Highman? “I thought that said Texaco. We’re low on gas.” That line is kind of funny but the situation surrounding it, not so much. It doesn’t even make that much sense. About half of Due Date doesn’t make any sense.

Downey isn’t even really trying and the script doesn’t require him to. He isn’t bad or anything but this is far removed from what we saw in Tropic Thunder. Galifianakis does what everyone has grown accustomed to him doing: acting goofy and being random. His best performance to date was in what I consider to be an extremely underrated movie, It’s Kind of a Funny Story. Still, he probably is the best thing about Due Date. I had to laugh at the Sheila Pimples line and when he said, “I got ninety friends on Facebook, twelve of them are pending, but I got ninety friends.” Galifianakis can make me laugh anytime he wants to.

So I didn’t like Due Date. There will be people who do like it. More power to them, I say. But I prefer my comedies to make a little more sense. I want more of an explanation for why the characters are doing what they are doing. I want to laugh much more often. I recently saw a movie called (500) Days of Summer. That is an example of a great comedy with a great plot. I wish Due Date had more of its qualities. I am a huge fan of both Downey and Galifianakis, but if I want to see them in a comedy again, I’ll watch Up in the Air or Bowfinger instead.

Score: :(:(1/2

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11 Comments

Reply Stephen Fox
3:29 PM on April 15, 2011 
Buddy:

Hope you can see this one soon

http://www.ethicsdaily.com/win-win-cms-17760

Looking forward to your report on it.

I hope to See the Robert Redford Film Conspiracy soon. And also hoping the two chapters of the Collinsville Film Society can get together soon.

Stephen Fox, Founder CFS
Reply Buddy Acker
3:36 AM on April 17, 2011 
Hey Stephen,

I've been wanting to see "Win Win". It's one of my most anticipated this year.
Reply Russ
10:59 PM on April 18, 2011 
Great reviews, Buddy. Well-written and thoughtful. Fox directed me here. He's a born marketer.

My only suggestion is to change the color layout. Maybe I'm the only one, but reading white print on a black background gives me a headache and eye strain. Sorry to sound like a grumpy old man. But I am a grumpy old man, so...
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