DVD review: due date

A rigid settled guy is forced to travel with an inept buffoon.

The model here is obviously “Planes, trains and automobiles”, a 1987 comedy by John Hughes and while the model is certainly significant and relatively unexplored in recent years it is also a difficult sell.

Todd Phillips who wrote and directed should in theory have a relatively easy time. Cringe inducing comedies are difficult to pull off but he made the most successful of them all, “The hangover”, so in shouldn’t be too much of a stretch.

Alas the more times pass to more it looks like “The hangover “was just a random fib in the career of a not very talented writer. This is not the “difficult second album” syndrome. All of Phillips recent output ranged from “not very good” trough “moderately terrible” all the way to “unwatchable”.

Due Date sits halfway between the last two.

First of all is not fun. The laugh free comedy is a recent American invention and this is one of the best examples. Instead of laughs we get the aforementioned cringe inducing moments. Terrible stuff happens to our protagonist, mostly because of the insane action of Ethan Tremblay played by a Zach Galifianakis so out there that they should probably send a mission to space to retrieve him.

Nothing against having actors playing the same guy over and over again. Maybe my problem is that, apart from “the hangover”, I don’t like this guy, at all. If he toned down himself a little bit it would be fine but as it is you can’t help but sympathize with whatever authority figure is obliged to confront him.

Robert Downey Jr. plays against type as the guy who needs to have his eyes opened and enjoy life a little bit more. I love Downey Jr. be this is the rare role when he didn’t convince me. Maybe is the character that is so unsympathetic, so unrelatable, but really I couldn’t travel more than 10 minutes with a guy like that one.

Conclusion: An unfunny comedy where terrible stuff happens to horrible people. Thumb down.