Due Date Cinema

Go through most men’s Blu-ray collection today and guarantee
between the Mad Men boxset and Die Hard collection will be a copy of The
Hangover. It was one of those fail safe films that catered to every
young male’s viewing needs and wound up being one of the funner finds of
last year. With its sequel now filming producer Todd Phillips decided
to take this winning formula of comic mayhem and channel it as a
director. In an industry where you can’t swing a runner without hitting a
comic book adaptation or multistar hit machine, this new genre of
bromantic comedy (brom com?) has wiggled in to make a name for itself,
and so far it’s off to a very good start.

Nothing could prove this more than the two names running this gig. Zach Galifianakis
has blossomed as the onscreen and online American funnyman, and proving
to be the comeback of the decade with every film he makes, Robert
Downey Jnr has managed to make Marvel fanboys, middle aged women and the
majority if mainstream audiences the world over weak at the knees. A
sure-fire cast then and gag-heavy trailers paved the way for promising
things.

The story admittedly is overused and terribly simple, serving as
nothing more than a means to stumbling from bad event to another. Downey Jnr.’s
dad-to-be, Peter, is forced to hitch a ride with permed thespian Ethan
(Galifianakis) after the hopeful actor accidently frames him as a
suspected terrorist and misses the flight home to expectant wife (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang co star Michelle Monaghan.)

From here on ensues encounters with disgruntled armed handicaps, weed
invoked catastrophe (alas not live on national television this time)
and Jamie Foxx. Ethan is on this journey in the first place to scatter his father’s ashes, shadowing Meet the Parents,
and many a comedy before it, but also offering the opportunity for
Galfianakis to unearth some horribly touching emotion under that massive
beard.

To counter this, Downey Jnr doesn’t come out the hard done by guy we expect, and in a few kid-punching, spitting on dog “did he really just do that?” moments manages to define the film; vintage humour with a few good dirty punches to keep us revived.

The supporting cast are barely there, meaning that this is solely these boys’ show and it’s just effortless.
Despite the film’s whole-hearted feel, some of the jokes do fall short
as we’ve simply seen them too many times before and for a comedy it does
edge into Lifetime territory at times (you at least want the ashes to
blow back in Ethan’s face after he’s scattered them.) But maybe that’s
what Phillips is trying to change here; audiences are so used to
expecting (and admittedly hoping) the worst for these guys maybe it
would be nice to see a little redemption amongst the chaos.

Predictably, Peter grows as a person whilst Ethan only seems to grow
bigger in persona, all to the tune of a very impressive soundtrack and
some fine fine location shots. The writing seems to lag a little at
times; Downy Jnr could do with rolling his eyes less and Galifianakis’
poncing around in skinny jeans with dog in tow gets tiring, but again
both are just about saved by these other dimensions played through
convincingly, especially on the latter’s part. Essentially, Road Trip for big boys then and with a nice rounded end
there’s no threat of a sequel, unless heaven forbid Galifianakis
manages to squeeze himself out of those piped trousers and create a
spawn.