Due Date and Planes, Trains and Automobiles are two on-road-comedies about two different sets of men who are strangers traveling across country together in order to get to different places. They follow the two sets of men over several days while they find their way to where they’re going, with lots of mishaps along the way. Both Ethan Tremblay and Del Griffith are the wild, joyful counter-parts to the main straight-men they are traveling with. Both of them are also the instigators in their long cross-country trips with strangers. They are also the reasons, in large part, that Peter Highman and Neal Page are forced to end up traveling with them. Due Date and Planes, Trains and Automobiles are two very similar cross-country trip comedies with a funny man and a straight man that fit the times in which they were made.
The first similarities you’ll notice when comparing the two films are the settings. Del and Ethan both accidently help screw up their future traveling partners’ day outside an airport. Hilarity then ensues on the actual plane with the unlikely pairs being seated together. Both sets of guys also end up off the flight before reaching their destinations. Peter and Ethan get kicked off their flight, but Neal and Del’s plane is forced to land early. The cities that these scenes happen in are different too, but you wouldn’t exactly know it if you didn’t pay close attention. They end up sharing a motel room, which doesn’t go as planned of course. There are also many similar diners that the characters stop to eat at along their treks.
Situations is something I addressed a little bit in the previous paragraph, but not every in-depth. Peter and Neal both get robbed of their money, however in PTaA, Del gets robbed too and in Due Date, Ethan is the one that actually robs Peter. The characters also end up relating in very different ways. The characters relate at times in obvious, sentimental ways in Due Date and it is more subtle in Planes & Trains. Neal takes longer to warm up to Del also, even though he is less hard-edged than Peter from Due Date. One other difference in the situations of the films is that in Due Date, the men intentionally stay together after they begin traveling together while in Planes & Trains, the men keep running into one another. The protagonists in the films have car trouble caused the buffoonery of their films’ wild men as well.
Due Date and Planes, Trains and Automobiles are amazingly similar comedies from different decades. Because Due Date was made so long after PTaA, some might consider it a rip-off. However there is enough different for it to be considered a good travel comedy in its own right. Both films have a strong layer of depth under their comedy exteriors, making them fun and relatable at the same time.
12.07.2010
Due Date
Due Date Review
The film we saw in the most recent Film Criticism and Review class was “Due Date.” Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis lead this on-the-road comedy from the director of The Hangover. The film takes place all over, starting in Atlanta and going to Los Angeles. The main character Peter wants to witness the birth of his child but he is kicked off a plane and put on their no fly list thanks to a nitwit stranger. He ends up taking a ride with that stranger all the way home because he loses his wallet he is desperate. Due Date is a severely bi-polar crude comedy that often drifts into drama because of the heartfelt characters.
The movie begins with the two characters not getting along so well, but making the best of their situation. Peter and his traveling buddy Ethan come to know each other along the way. Peter belittles Ethan when Ethan tells him that he wants to be an actor. He sympathizes with Ethan however when he sees that Ethan is broken-hearted over his father’s recent death. Ethan carries around his father’s ashes which later factors into the film’s hijinks. The film is all over the map in its brands of comedy. Things go from mildly realistic, to sappy, to extremely crude, to highly violent, to absurd and then finally to ‘laughing at the barn door’ at the end. They eventually become true friends in the film, even though the relationship is still highly strained. Peter gets saved by Ethan, then betrayed by him and then the relationship bonds one last time when Ethan gets a wounded Peter to the hospital to see his child being born.
Like I mentioned above, the direction in which the film takes its comedy makes strange turns. The best example of this is when Peter gets detained for drug-possession at the Mexican border and Ethan manages to hijack the trailer that Peter is being held in. He fights off the Mexican police in his car and they end up on the run in a Border Police truck. This takes the film in direction that makes the whole thing far less believable and it didn’t even warrant one laugh as I recall in the theater. This might very well be the part where the film ‘jumped the shark’. I found the drug trip that the two protagonists when through in the previous scene to be a lot funnier and more appropriate to the story. Peter imagining Ethan as a bear driving their vehicle was probably the funniest point in Due Date for me. I feel like that is where it reached its peak and it sort of drifted downwards from there.
The acting is quite good on the parts of both Zach Galifianakis and Robert Downey Jr. Downey Jr. has established himself as a serious actor over the past two decades with impressive performances in films such as Good Night, and Good Luck; Iron Man; Zodiac; and Tropic Thunder. Galifianakis, however, is known for just being a comedian who doesn’t take himself too seriously so we just expect laughs from him. He does deliver, however the script isn’t exactly up to par. Aside from comedic skills, his actual acting is surprisingly good. He is a very competent actor and this helps him be the perfect foil for Robert Downey Jr. Jamie Foxx has a cameo as well and does a competent job. Foxx doesn’t really add anything however.
All in all I moderately enjoyed this film. The actors carry the film, so thank heavens we have two wonderful actors whom are very versatile. I give this movie 3 out of 5 stars. I laughed at several points and it had truly awesome cinematography.
The film we saw in the most recent Film Criticism and Review class was “Due Date.” Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis lead this on-the-road comedy from the director of The Hangover. The film takes place all over, starting in Atlanta and going to Los Angeles. The main character Peter wants to witness the birth of his child but he is kicked off a plane and put on their no fly list thanks to a nitwit stranger. He ends up taking a ride with that stranger all the way home because he loses his wallet he is desperate. Due Date is a severely bi-polar crude comedy that often drifts into drama because of the heartfelt characters.
The movie begins with the two characters not getting along so well, but making the best of their situation. Peter and his traveling buddy Ethan come to know each other along the way. Peter belittles Ethan when Ethan tells him that he wants to be an actor. He sympathizes with Ethan however when he sees that Ethan is broken-hearted over his father’s recent death. Ethan carries around his father’s ashes which later factors into the film’s hijinks. The film is all over the map in its brands of comedy. Things go from mildly realistic, to sappy, to extremely crude, to highly violent, to absurd and then finally to ‘laughing at the barn door’ at the end. They eventually become true friends in the film, even though the relationship is still highly strained. Peter gets saved by Ethan, then betrayed by him and then the relationship bonds one last time when Ethan gets a wounded Peter to the hospital to see his child being born.
Like I mentioned above, the direction in which the film takes its comedy makes strange turns. The best example of this is when Peter gets detained for drug-possession at the Mexican border and Ethan manages to hijack the trailer that Peter is being held in. He fights off the Mexican police in his car and they end up on the run in a Border Police truck. This takes the film in direction that makes the whole thing far less believable and it didn’t even warrant one laugh as I recall in the theater. This might very well be the part where the film ‘jumped the shark’. I found the drug trip that the two protagonists when through in the previous scene to be a lot funnier and more appropriate to the story. Peter imagining Ethan as a bear driving their vehicle was probably the funniest point in Due Date for me. I feel like that is where it reached its peak and it sort of drifted downwards from there.
The acting is quite good on the parts of both Zach Galifianakis and Robert Downey Jr. Downey Jr. has established himself as a serious actor over the past two decades with impressive performances in films such as Good Night, and Good Luck; Iron Man; Zodiac; and Tropic Thunder. Galifianakis, however, is known for just being a comedian who doesn’t take himself too seriously so we just expect laughs from him. He does deliver, however the script isn’t exactly up to par. Aside from comedic skills, his actual acting is surprisingly good. He is a very competent actor and this helps him be the perfect foil for Robert Downey Jr. Jamie Foxx has a cameo as well and does a competent job. Foxx doesn’t really add anything however.
All in all I moderately enjoyed this film. The actors carry the film, so thank heavens we have two wonderful actors whom are very versatile. I give this movie 3 out of 5 stars. I laughed at several points and it had truly awesome cinematography.
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