Robert Downey Jr. stars in Due Date, as Peter Highman, an architect who has traveled to Atlanta on business. He's anxious to get home to Los Angeles, as his wife, Sarah (Michelle Monaghan), is set to have their first child. However, Peter has an incident at the airport, both at the security checkpoint and on the plane, with Ethan Tremblay (Zach Galifianakis), an odd, bumbling man. Because of this, both Peter and Ethan are placed on the "No Fly" list. Peter is particularly in bad shape, as he left his wallet on the plane, leaving him with no money or ID. However, Ethan rents a car and offers to give Peter a ride cross-country. Despite the fact that this man ruined his plans, Peter sees no other option and accepts the offer. Thus begins an adventure where Ethan will get the pair into one odd situation after another as they attempt to traverse America. The question quickly becomes can Peter keep himself from killing Ethan before Ethan does something which gets Peter killed?

As with so many movies, Due Date looks good on paper. With the success of the Iron Man films, Robert Downey Jr. has never been hotter and he's been able to spread his talents across many genres. Thanks to the success of The Hangover (and his memorable turn on Saturday Night Live), Zach Galifianakis is suddenly a prize commodity, which is still surprising, given his bizarre style of comedy. Other than School for Scoundrels, Director Todd Phillips has had a string of hits and the success of The Hangover only solidified his reputation as a go-to director for comedies. So, the movie had "hit" written all over it, and as it grossed over $100 million at the box office, it seems to have succeeded. So, then why is the film so unsatisfying?

For me, a huge part of this stems from the lack of originality, to which I alluded earlier. Were we supposed to watch this movie and not think about Planes, Trains, and Automobiles? Is this a homage, or something else? Is this a case where the powers that be behind Due Date simply assumed that the target audience wouldn't be aware of a movie from 1987? Whatever the case, the similarities between the two films are numerous and I felt that this made Due Date feel not only predictable, but unnecessary.

And then we have the odd tone of Ethan's character. In Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, John Candy is sort of an annoying blowhard, who, as it turns out, has a sad story. He's never really unlikable, but when can see why he annoys Steve Martin's character. In Due Date, Ethan is simply weird from the outset. There's no getting to know him period where we aren't sure -- from the second that we know that he's taking Mad magazine and a hash pipe on the plane, he's weird. Yes, he has the sad story to go along with his weirdness, but at times, it's like he's in a different movie. This isn't a situation where Peter and Ethan have the same goal, but they view it differently -- Ethan acts as if he's never been out of the house before! This makes it very difficult to relate to anything happening in the movie. In some respects, Ethan's naivety is a big part of his personality, but his odd behavior is too odd at times, and can pull the viewer out of the film.

That's not to say that the movie doesn't have some funny moments, but most of them come from Galifianakis. In fact, many parts of Due Date feel as if Zach Galfifanakis is playing Zach Galifianakis. I have no way of knowing which lines were scripted and which were ad-libbed, but much of what Ethan says sounds like something which would come from Galifianakis’ stand-up show. Outside of his odd comments, the movie offers very little humor. Peter rarely comes out of his role as the straight man, and only a cameo from Danny McBride offers any other laughs. When I look back on the movie and think about the funny parts, they are all non-sensical lines from Galifianakis, and that’s not enough to make me watch the movie again. When a movie’s “go to” joke is a masturbating dog, you know it’s not very good.

It’s never a good sign when a movie wears out its welcome, but that happens in Due Date. There’s a point in the movie where it looks as if Peter and Ethan have overcome all of their obstacles and they can easily make it to Los Angeles. This happens with about 40 more minutes left in the movie. Upon learning this, my wife said, “What else can happen?”...but not in a good way. This is the kind of movie which Due Date is. Fifty minutes in and we’re ready to go. The movie has a few laughs, but given the talent involved, this is a major disappointment.

Due Date wants us to believe that anyone could have survived that car wreck on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Warner Home Video. The film has been letterboxed at 2.35:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 20 Mbps. The image is sharp and clear, showing only trace amounts of grain and no defects from the source material. The grain occurs mostly during the desert shots. The colors look good and the image is never overly bright, but some of the nighttime shots where a bit dark. The picture shows fairly good depth, but I wasn’t impressed by the amount of detail. The Disc carries a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 2.8 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. The stereo effects are good, and there are a few scenes where off-screen sounds are highlighted. The car-crash scenes provide modest subwoofer effects. The constant highway noise allows for detectable, but not necessarily engrossing surround sound.

The Due Date Blu-ray Disc contains a small assortment of extras. The Disc contains three DELETED SCENES which run about 4 minutes. All of these are simply extended versions of scenes from the movie and don't offer much. Speaking of extended versions of scenes from the movie, "The Complete Two and a Half Men Scene" (3 minutes), shows us all of a moment which is seen on a TV in the movie. We get a 7 minute GAG REEL. "Too Many Questions" (41 seconds) is simply a reel of alternate takes from an early scene in the film. "Action Mash-up" (30 seconds) is a montage of every stunt in the film.