Todd Phillips films have been hit or miss lately. He certainly was on a roll with movies like The Hangover and Old School. He has his moments of missing with movies like School for Scoundrels. What I like about Todd Phillips is that he isn’t afraid to mix up the genre a bit and he’s not afraid of keeping around the same actors in his films. He made Vince Vaughn hilarious in my eyes, as well as the Owens brothers. With that said, he took two of the most unlikely actors and put them together in his most recent comedy, Due Date. There is no way that Zach Galifianakis and Robert Downey Jr. should be on the same billing; no way, no how. Downey’s coming off one of the most successful stints of his rejuvenated career, while the North Carolina native Galifianakis is just emerging as a funny man again in Hollywood (this is his second go around again since his VH1 show). In one corner you have a sophisticated actor and in the other you have a funny slob.
So how did they do? ‘They’ did great. The movie simply failed them.
The chemistry between Galifianakis and Downey Jr. is fun and frightening to watch. The opening scene of the film when Galifianakis’ Ethan talks to Downey Jr.’s Peter Highman about his father’s old saying (“It’s all uphill from here.”) and Downey argues with him about how he’s saying it wrong (“It’s all downhill from here.”) and abruptly ends the conversation with, “Well, your father’s a (bleepin) moron.” Perfect timing for that comedy! It’s back and forth and BAM! That really defines the chemistry between the two actors in that one short moment. While I had severe reservations that these two would certainly have a weird chemistry issue onscreen they went together like peanut butter and jelly. Again, regretfully their efforts were skewed.
Despite the acting the story really had some issues, especially with believability.
(SPOILER ALERT — hide your eyes if you don’t want to know)
If someone got me kicked off a plane and blacklisted from flying in America there is no way on God’s green earth I would drive cross country with them. Also, why wouldn’t Downey’s character take a train? Better yet, why doesn’t his wife’s parents come pick up Downey? Or maybe catch a plane to drive Downey home? There are tons of reasons why the road trip shouldn’t happen to begin with and that’s a huge flaw in the story. As a writer your job is to make sure you have all your bases covered when you’re trying to capture your audience. Any good writer knows that you better have an excuse for any obvious flaws in the story. Having no wallet and no means to financially get from the east to the west is one thing, but not explaining other modes of transportation is another. Maybe Peter’s phone went missing. Maybe his wife is completely unreachable. The fact that Peter can communicate with his wife perfectly opens up the door for too many ‘ways out’ in this story. Unfortunately because of this you simply cannot believe that this is the man’s only option. Instead of feeling trapped with Peter you end up saying, “You should have thought this through because there are other options.” Ultimately, the story feels forced and the comedy feels forced, which makes the ride bumpy throughout.
(SPOILER ENDED)
If you can suspend all of these things and move on with the story then you’ll get very funny moments along the way. From a drug dealing Juliette Lewis (and her drugged out director friend) to a badass wheelchair veteran who kicks the crap out of Peter. There are funny moments to be had in this film, but it all depends on what you want. Phillips did a great job finding the right leads, did a great job with bringing the comedy, but seemed to skimp out completely on the overall storyline.
The thing that separates good comedies from bad comedies is a ‘great set up’. This set up was not well though out.
With all of this said, the Blu-ray still looks damn good. While the runny moments certainly don’t make you sit back and think, “What a gorgeous backdrop” there are moments in the film where you see HD at its finest. Cross-country films really shine as locations are important to establish where one is in the story. I would love to give you an example, but the best one is towards the end. You’ll see what I mean when you watch it. The shear depth of the scene is enough to make you kiss your Blu-ray player and television. Anyone who can’t appreciate the 1080p goodness that this film produces simply can’t appreciate life; It’s just that good. As for the audio, typically the best part about comedies is the sound effects. Hearing the crashing of someone’s head onto a truck hood and cringing from it gives you the perfect example of how good the audio is on this Blu-ray. Anytime you can react to a well-mastered effect in a comedy then your ears are in good hands. You’ll get all the ‘smashing’ effects in wonderful 5.1 DTS-HD.
As for special features, here’s what you’re looking at:
The “Due Date” Blu-ray Combo Pack contains the following special features:
◦ “Two and a Half Men” Scene Featuring Ethan Tremblay
◦ Gag Reel
◦ Too Many Questions Mashup
◦ Action Mashup
◦ Additional Scenes
◦ DVD version of the film
◦ Digital Copy of the film on Disc
I like what WB did here, and especially the gag reel. I wish there had been some audio commentary from the two leads and director Todd Phillips. Commentary would have been absolutely golden for this release. Anyway, the features are good nonetheless.
Available on Blu-ray Combo Pack, DVD, On Demand and for Download 2/22! http://bit.ly/DueDateFB