Review: Due Date

Grade: A-

Peter Highman is a high-strung father-to-be who is on a business trip in Atlanta. He is on his way home to his wife in Los Angeles, who is pregnant and could give birth any day, when he runs into a man by the name of Ethan Tremblay, who manages to get the both of them put on the no-fly list. Now Peter has no wallet or any money and must find a way to travel across the country in a couple days so he can be home in time for his child’s birth. Ethan offers Peter a ride across the country and he reluctantly accepts. Ethan proves to be more trouble than he’s worth as he is very annoying, very dumb and keeps getting them in increasing amounts of trouble and almost gets them killed a couple times as well.

I have been excited about this movie for a while, when I heard that Todd Phillips, the director of The Hangover, was making a road trip comedy with Robert Downey Jr. and Zack Galifinakis, I knew this had the potential to be comedy gold. I am happy to report that Due Date does not disappoint. This is easily one of the funniest movies of the year, I was laughing from start to finish. There are some great gags in the movie, one of my favorites is when Peter Highman punches this annoying kid and teaches him a lesson. The comedy just never lets up, which makes me happy because more and more comedies these days are only funny for the first half then gets serious for the rest of the movie, not Due Date. This is one of the best road trip/buddy comedies ever.

Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) plays the role of Peter Highman. He is absolutely perfect in this role. His delivery of his lines in spot is spot on, he plays high-strung very well and he delivers his lines with perfect comedic timing, simply hilarious. Zack Galifinakis (The Hangover, It’s Kind of a Funny Story) plays the role of Ethan Tremblay, an aspiring actor. Galifinakis gives funniest performance to date in this movie. I don’t quite know how to describe it, but he was just so perfect in this role, again with great timing and delivery. What really makes this movie work though, is how well these two play off each other. While both actors and characters are funny in their own way, they are side-splitting hilarious when they are together. I was curious as to how it would work out, but this is one of the better comedy pairings I’ve seen in a long time. The movie also features Michelle Monaghan, Jamie Foxx, Juliette Lewis, Danny McBride, RZA, Matt Walsh and more.

This is definitely one of, if not flat out the funniest movie of 2010. If you are looking for some good laughs, you will find them in Due Date. I was afraid that this was going to be one of those movies where all the funniest stuff was in the trailer and the rest was going to be disappointing, not the case at all. The movie contains much funnier stuff than what’s in the trailer, and the stuff in the trailer manages to stay funny and at times be funnier than it was in the trailer when you see it in context of the movie.

Great quote: “I’m sorry we drank your father.”