DUE DATE

title: DUE DATE
year: 2010
cast: Robert Downey Jr., Zack Galifianakis, Juliette Lewis
rating: **

Although technically not a remake of John Hughes’s PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES, it’s a replica of the 1980s road trip misadventure involving two polar opposites: one a cynical, stuffy businessman, unsuccessful in taking a plane and reluctantly hitting the road with a talkative, overweight boob: to make it on time for… no, not Thanksgiving, but the birth of his child. Zach Galifianakis makes for a unique (and uneven) bad luck charm, constantly putting uptight Robert Downey Jr. through hell. Downey’s performance is stilted and stuffy, and that’s not just his character channeling through. His constant reminders on how much Galifianakis irks him hinges on intrusive narration. And many of the perilous situations, like an escape from a Mexican border station and a DIE HARD style car crash, are too unrealistic for an odyssey we’re supposed to relate with. The looming due date... Downey’s destination and the entire plot of the film... is an afterthought with no real sense of urgency. And like several 80’s comedies (BREAKFAST CLUB, REVENGE OF THE NERDS and 9 TO 5 come to mind), marijuana breaks the ice: so perhaps this is a celebration of that entire era, on purpose.