Due Date is basically a remake of John Hughes' much loved Planes Trains & Automobiles as it features two mismatched men trying to get from one side of the US to the other via land transport. Now Planes Trains isn't a movie I love all that much, but I must acknowledge that it does have the talents (on top form too) of Steve Martin and John Candy. However, when compared with Due Date it is a piece of cinematic comedic art, crafted to masterpiece standards of quality.
Due Date is shit. All the way through I was screaming at the screen, "MAKE ME LAUGH, MOTHERCUSSER!!!" And it did not (although there were two brief exceptions). AS the 'weird' half of the buddy duo Zack Galifinakis is simply not funny. Weird and highly irritating yes, funny no. Downey Jnr fares much better as the straight man who has to share his journey with the nutter, but he only rises to the comedy challenge when he allows himself off the leash, which is extremely rarely.
The comic set pieces are pathetic, the story generic and predictable and the whole affair a deep disappointment from the director of Old School and Road Trip, but after the highly overrated The Hangover, I should have expected it. As for the two moments that made me laugh....well, they both involved Galifinkis' small dog. Yes folks, the only thing that could raise a smile to my face during this clustercuss was a masturbating dog and Robert Downey Jnr viciously spitting in the dogs face. Avoid.
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