Due Date Review

By: Robert Acosta

Cast:
Robert Downey Jr. as Peter Highman
Zach Galifinakis as Ethan Chase
Michelle Monaghan as Sarah Highman
Jamie Foxx as Darryl

Review: Going into the movie I expected Due Date to be the comedy of the year. It has some stiff competition in MacGruber and The Other Guys but I thought it could beat both of them. Was I right?

Not entirely.

I didn’t find a lot wrong with it. I don’t want anyone to think this is a negative review, cause Due Date is a funny movie with funny people.

Robert Downey Jr. continues his resurgence and has shown that he is as versatile an actor as they come. He can do action flicks if need be and he can do comedy flicks if he so chooses to. Zach Galifinakis is slowly but surely becoming the funniest man on the face of the earth. He’s got a good balance of outrageousness and subtlety in his comedy that it’s hard to find someone who doesn’t find him out right hilarious.

The story is both a funny and believable one, though in comedy the story doesn’t have to be exactly moving. Peter, played by Downey Jr., is expecting his first child. He is all the way across the country in Georgia while his wife is in California. In boarding a plane to go back to California, he meets Ethan, played by Galifinakis. Through a series of arguments, Ethan gets both him and Peter thrown off the plane on the no fly list, leading to a cross country adventure between the two to get back to California.

The funny, memorable moments are there and they are good, just like they should be in any good comedy movie. But when you throw together Robert Downey Jr and Zach Galifinakis, you really do expect comedy of the year and that is a high expectation to live up to. Because it is so high, it becomes extremely difficult to reach it. Nonetheless, Due Date is still hilarious and both Downey Jr. and Galifinakis give great performances.

One thing I liked other than the comedy, was the connection between Downey Jr. and Galifinakis. They’re definitely the best duo in a movie in quite some time. They had this bromance, to stay current with the times, that really showed and made things even funnier. My only problem with this bromance is that Downey Jr. never really acknowledges how much of a friend Galifinakis is to him, only when he was high. It could have worked better if both acknowledged their friendship with each other, much like they did in I Love You, Man.

All in all, Due Date is hilarious and a great movie. November still starts strong, not with the comedy of the year but definitely the rightful owner of the 2nd best comedy of the year.

Rating: 4 out of 5