Due Date. It's Planes, Trains and Automobiles brought to the year 2010. That translates into a modernized version of the 1987 John Hughes hit, which of course, means more weed, masturbation and increased frequency of the ole 'f-word'. John Candy meet Zach Galifianakis. Steve Martin meet Robert Downey, Jr. The plot is slightly different, but the premise is the same. Straight-laced dude meets loony dud, both forced to eek their way across country. In this case, it's the birth of the first born for people-challenged Peter (Downey, Jr.) that has prompted his no-holds barred trek from Atlanta to Los Angeles. Meanwhile, the aloof, ditsy, 'you're kidding me, right', actor-to-be, Ethan (Galifianakis) is just happy to have the company. Both get kicked off the plane thanks to a dual lack of people skills. Ethan's issue is that he seems oblivious that someone may not want his gregarious personality, not to mention his burly belly, in their space. Meanwhile, Peter is the ultimate smart-ass who is just pissed that the world is not a carbon copy of him. They end up nailed by a Federal Marshall before sharing a rental car and yadayadayada we watch their potential march toward being BFF's...kinda.
There is definitely some laugh-out-loud funny going on here. You've got two out-of-sorts characters wreaking all kinds of havoc and some of it is, indeed, hilarious. While there are many similarities between Due Date and Planes, Trains and Automobiles, there are differences. The 1987 classic certainly touched on moments of deep character issues, but was heavily slanted with a definite slap-stick, comedic focus. Due Date may be a little more concerned with developing these two oppo-world characters. For instance, Ethan is packing--no, not a gun. He's carrying his dead father's remains in a coffee jar, which leads to some deep thoughts. Meanwhile, Peter is just unlikeable. He's smart-ass through and through, not to mention throughout the flick. Keep in mind, this is coming from a smart ass, but Peter's version is quite often not relayed in a comedic way. Actually, he's just plain mean. As a result, we don't side with him for spouting off against the numerous challenges of every day life. You know, the kind that try the patience of us all. Instead, you find yourself feeling bad for the person who initiated the frustration. It didn't have to be that way, which brings me to my real issue with Due Date.
Aside from the 23-year old storyline, my main problem with Due Date is that it's characters are just not very likable. Yes, Ethan certainly has his moments, but he wouldn't grow on me if he was surgically implanted in my left butt cheek. Meanwhile, Peter is just a jerk. I love Robert Downey, Jr. so I typically tend to trust his vision for a character, assuming that it's his vision. With this, however, I would have prefered to have seen Peter played as a guy frustrated by the every day annoyances and fighting back with a little quippy, smart-ass flare that made a point and put the frustrator's in their place. It didn't happen. Peter was just mean. If words were weapons, he'd have blood on his hands. Instead, he fights back as a rude, arrogant jackal...and...well...my big issue with Peter: Who spits on a dog, anyway!?! Peter's character hocks one at Ehan's bulldog, Sunny out of frustration really aimed at Ethan himself. It was seemingly done as a shock factor and a completely unwarranted action toward the dog. Yeah, I'm sure the dog was not harmed in any way during the filming, but it was just unsettling. The dog was undoubtedly one of the more docile animal character in a film in recent memory. I mean, if Sunny had been a loud annoyance or remotely aggressive you could understand the hostility. Neither was the case. Rather, Sunny was a virtually non-existent and innocent accessory to the loopy Ethan's character.
I go back and forth on this one. I laughed enough to give it 3.5 Stars, but was at times pissed off to point of scaling it back to 2.5. We'll settle on 3.0 Stars with the warning issued...don't spit on a dog, dude.
True...OUT!
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