Peter Highman (Robert Downey Jr.) is an expectant first-time father whose wife’s due date is a mere five days away. As Peter hurries to catch a flight home from Atlanta to be at her side for the birth, his best intentions go completely awry when a chance encounter with aspiring actor Ethan Tremblay (Zach Galifianakis) forces Peter to hitch a ride with Ethan-on what turns out to be a cross-country road trip that will ultimately destroy several cars, numerous friendships and Peter’s last nerve.
Expectations were high when I was walking into this film everything I had seen was hilarious from the first teaser to the redband trailer and then about 45minutes into the film I realised I should have expected a lot less. With the combination of Robert Downey Jr and Zach Galifianakis I really thought it was hard to go wrong but after nearly all the funniest bits in the film were in the trailer I’m like what’s the point? There are a few laughs here and there but the humour was just really flat and tacky, it’s a rarity that I slam a film but with an ensemble like this I was just disappointed.
There are some good points, performance wise I can’t really fault anyone the supporting cast was fantastic including Danny McBride(Up in the Air, Land of the Lost), Michelle Monaghan (MI:3) and Jamie Foxx. The director is Todd Phillips who is behind some classics as ‘The Hangover’ and one of the greatest road trip movies of all time “Road Trip” back in 2000 he also co-wrote DUE DATE which is were the movie completely fell over, I really do think the dialog and the just simple grab for laughs is what let it down the most.
If you have a few hours to waste check it out but otherwise maybe wait for DVD. DUE DATE is in cinemas now and I give this film 2 out of 5 stars.
Added the redband trailer below.