50th Post Anniversary: Due Date

Pack your bags because Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis are heading off to Los Angeles in this funny, yet superficial, unlikely buddies film. Road trip!

Let's just put it out there: this movie is funny. It works Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis' unique chemistry together in a way that will definitely keep the Friday night crowd entertained, which is very important to a rod trip movie. However, I was expecting this movie to be great and it falls short of that.

Here are my problems with this film: With four writers, each experienced in writing comedies, this script should have been funnier than it is. Include Todd Philips in on that and I , much like Michelle Monaghan, was expecting great things. However, unlike Michelle Monaghan, I was let down at the end of this movie. Too much of the comedy here is dark humor.

There was not much to these characters. We never learn much about Ethan Tremblay (Galifianakis) other than he is aspiring to be an actor and he really misses his father and when Peter Highman (Downey) tries opening up to Ethan, the emotional bridge between the two is broken when Ethan starts laughing, which is supposed to be funny, but instead it makes us feel bad for laughing.We never get that emotional payoff scene where the two characters really connect, it sorta just happens out of thin air towards the end of the movie while we are left wondering "Wait... why is Robert Downey Jr.'s character suddenly being nice to Ethan?".

By the end of the movie, I really didn't like Peter; he  is a jerk, punching a little kid, spitting in a dog's face, cussing out Ethan, ditching him at a rest stop, almost leaving his father's remains on the side of a freeway, and in the end makes you wonder why his wife is with him in the first place. All this makes it difficult to feel glad for the guy in the end. Sure this is all funny, but, again, it makes us feel guilty for laughing.

If you like laughing at other peoples' expense then you will thoroughly enjoy this movie, but outside of all the inhumaine slapstick, there are still enough laughs for me to reccommend it for when it hits blu-ray and DVD.

Rent it.