How far is too far? Due Date provides a great deal of laughs, but lacks the sustaining enjoyment because the undertone of the movie is paved with a road of discomfort and queasy humor to get there. The scripting was key in this one and the characters did amazingly well with many lines that no doubt made the audience cringe and laugh at the same time. It was as if we were laughing but deep down maybe we felt we shouldn't be. Lots of lines that used shock value for laughs. What brought this about was primarily Zach Galifianakis' crazy antics with his most unusual character.
The plot is as follows: Peter Highman (Robert Downey, Jr), successful businessman is on his way to witness the birth of his baby across the country. He becomes entangled with Ethan Tremblay (Zach Galifianakis), an "actor" on his way to Hollywood for his shot in the limelight. Through Tremblay's actions, the 2 end up having to carpool across the country together, and of course they are on a timeline (we have the successful duplication of the plot line from Planes, Trains, and Automobiles).
The relationship between the 2 main characters works. On one hand we have Ethan, who says whatever he wants at any time. This guy doesn't have a censor button anywhere on him, and his dialogue consists of things that most people wish they could probably share aloud. Downey is confrontational, direct, frustrated, and out of patience. We see the mean-spirited relationship even out when Peter puts Ethan in his place, responding to every idiotic notion that his counterpart has.
There wasn't really a dull moment in the movie, and there were a few heartfelt moments as the audience becomes won over and slightly sentimental by the quirkiness and over the top antics covering the deeply buried emotions of Ethan. A large part of the movie is him saying the most inappropriate things at the most inappropriate and inopportune times.
So I had to ask myself: does me laughing throughout the movie make it a "good" movie? And I had to answer, that yes for the most part that was true. After all it is a comedy, but the comic moments didn't keep my eye from the main storyline, which I felt was weak. What I am trying to say is that although I laughed, the level of enjoyment I experienced from the movie was not in correlation.
One of my favorite scenes had to be Galifianakis' impersonation of Don Corleone from The Godfather
The plot is as follows: Peter Highman (Robert Downey, Jr), successful businessman is on his way to witness the birth of his baby across the country. He becomes entangled with Ethan Tremblay (Zach Galifianakis), an "actor" on his way to Hollywood for his shot in the limelight. Through Tremblay's actions, the 2 end up having to carpool across the country together, and of course they are on a timeline (we have the successful duplication of the plot line from Planes, Trains, and Automobiles).
The relationship between the 2 main characters works. On one hand we have Ethan, who says whatever he wants at any time. This guy doesn't have a censor button anywhere on him, and his dialogue consists of things that most people wish they could probably share aloud. Downey is confrontational, direct, frustrated, and out of patience. We see the mean-spirited relationship even out when Peter puts Ethan in his place, responding to every idiotic notion that his counterpart has.
There wasn't really a dull moment in the movie, and there were a few heartfelt moments as the audience becomes won over and slightly sentimental by the quirkiness and over the top antics covering the deeply buried emotions of Ethan. A large part of the movie is him saying the most inappropriate things at the most inappropriate and inopportune times.
So I had to ask myself: does me laughing throughout the movie make it a "good" movie? And I had to answer, that yes for the most part that was true. After all it is a comedy, but the comic moments didn't keep my eye from the main storyline, which I felt was weak. What I am trying to say is that although I laughed, the level of enjoyment I experienced from the movie was not in correlation.
One of my favorite scenes had to be Galifianakis' impersonation of Don Corleone from The Godfather