Due Date gives money’s worth of belly laughs

Here’s the story… of a man named Peter…
OK – enough retro Brady Bunch references, but this is a re-worked story of two guys on a cross-country road trip that involves Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
I’m guessing you enjoyed it more the first time when it starred Steve Martin and John Candy.
Our story so far.
Zach Galifianakis stars as Ethan, a stumbling, bumbling maybe heart-of-gold doofus who manages to mess absolutely everything up. He clips the cars off Peter’s town car, switches carry on bags, gets them thrown off the plane because he keeps using words like bomb and terroist and then won’t back down when the TSA dude gets in his face.
It’s a simple concept. Peter’s wife is about to have a baby by c-section and time is of the essence.
Ethan has a plan which also includes moving to L.A.  to become an actor.
Buckle up.
Todd Philps directs this fool of a film and I say that with a lot of love.
His last film, The Hangover, was a huge hit and the funniest movie I saw last year. That had timing, story and even a reasonable story arc with ample character development. OK ample is generous. It had heart though.
This one is a little thin around the middle.
There are lots of star turns. Jamie Foxx who seems angry most of the time these days plays Peter’s old friend.
Juliette Lewis, who I like a lot, plays Ethan’s friend who specializes in herbal medicine, translater and gets him weed.
Ethan’s dog is with them and there’s an amusing bit where after Ethan practices self love in the front seat, the dog plays monkey see monkey do and well, it’s confusing. Do you laugh or call the humane society?
There’s also a running gag with Ethan carrying his father’s ashes. Plus lots of burnout drug abuse drinking hey-look-how-different-we-are jokes.
It’s funny.
Make no mistake.
I just really liked Planes Trains etc and it’s impossible not to compare this to that.
Downey Jr. plays a pretty good straight man and Zach is the mater of the bumbling fool but there isn’t that chemistry.
Yes I know how weird that sounds but there’s no empathy for Ethan. We just want him to go away at the end, or at least there’s some level of hijinx fatigue.
I liked Due Date a lot and so does the money paying trade and at the end of the day and the movie you got your money’s worth of belly laughs.
I recommend it and may even go and see it again. Or I might just rent the original. As always, other opinions are welcome, but wrong. That’s it for this week. The cheque’s in the mail and I’m outta here. Paul.