Dir: Todd Phillips Cast: Robert Downey Jr, Zach Galifianakis, Michelle Monaghan, Jamie Foxx
DUE DATE
A; COMEDY
Dir: Todd Phillips
Cast: Robert Downey Jr, Zach Galifianakis, Michelle Monaghan, Jamie Foxx
Rating: **
WHAT'S IT ABOUT: Depending on who your fellow passenger is, a roadtrip can either be the stuff memories are made of or a surefire method to suffer a nervous breakdown.
Peter Highman (Downey Jr) is trying to get back to his wife, Sarah (Monaghan) in Los Angeles in time to see his baby born. He doesn't know what he has got himself into when he first accidentally switches bags with Ethan Tremblay (Galifianakis) at the Atlanta airport. He gets into trouble during check-in, gets shot at with a rubber bullet on-flight by a federal marshall, gets kicked off the flight and placed on a 'no fly' list' and finally, is compelled to hitch a ride over several thousand miles to Los Angeles with a nutjob wannabe actor and his horny pug for company. And that's just the beginning of it.
WHAT'S HOT: For one, the casting seemed perfect. It's easily box-office fodder. RDJ is edgy cool and we can't get enough of him. Team him with the in-form Zach and director Todd Phillips had a sureshot recipe for success. If only...
WHAT'S NOT: The casting appears solid on paper and yet you can't expect these two to pull rabbits out of hats. There's only so much disgusting stuff we can put up with, Zach goes on and on with his intolerable brand of humour (particularly, the part where he and his pooch are masturbating in the car). While this feels like a send-up of an '80s flick, there's really nothing much you can do but uncomfortably laugh at the clean jokes and squirm at the yuck ones. Cameos (Jamie Foxx and Juliette Lewis) cannot do much for a film that's already precariously perched on the edge of couldn't-care-less. That's what happens when you try and make a feature film with a one-line plot.
WHAT TO DO: This one doesn't know what it wants to be: a feel-good buddy flick or a dope-fuelled crazy road-trip. It oscillates lazily somewhere between the two and even then remains undecided. You have an easy choice to make. Watch it for these two clowns or let this one pass.
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