Due Date Review: Right On Time

Due Date starts out with Peter Highman (Robert Downey Jr.) looking out his window at the Atlanta skyline in what I expect to be a condo around 12th and Peachtree Street. As an Atlanta native, I couldn’t help but smile when I could actually see my own condo building in this opening scene just a little ways down Peachtree.

After the giddiness wore off, the plot was already moving along. The premise is simple: Peter is trying to get home to his wife who is about to give birth to their first child. After a series of rather unfortunate incidents, courtesy of Mr. Zach Galifianakis’s character Ethan, Peter finds himself being escorted off his flight to LA and on the No Fly List. Without an ID or money (both of which have presumably been left on the plane with his luggage), Peter has no choice but to drive to LA with a rather lonely and child-like Ethan and his adorable dog (at least to us) Sonny.

Ethan’s story is simple as well: he’s a wannabe actor on his way to Hollywood to finally make his go at a new career. His father recently passed away, and Ethan had hopes of putting his ashes to rest somewhere along the roadtrip to the West Coast.

The film is a bit over-the-top and rather predictable – but that doesn’t mean you still won’t find a few laughs on the way. In the real world, the unlikely duo would have been arrested and charged with a number of felonies before making it to LA – but it’s a movie and a comedy. So when Peter and Ethan make a wrong turn after getting stoned and end up trying to cross into Mexico while thinking the sign says Texico – you just go with it, because what else can you do?

That being said, I think if Zach Galifianakis doesn’t stretch himself as an actor in the near future, he’s going to be typecast into a funny and sometimes annoying comic relief character just as we got to know him in The Hangover. I definitely think Galifianakis is capable of more such as we saw in It’s Kinda A Funny Story. I hope we get to see it soon. As for Robert Downey Jr., he’s a master at his craft and continues to shine just like we’re used to seeing.

Final verdict? It’s probably the funniest film you’ll see this weekend if you’re looking for an adult comedy. It opens nationally today. Overall we enjoyed it, though a lot of other writers completely trashed it. So don’t write it off just yet. Give it a chance, just don’t take it too seriously.

Review By: Emma Loggins