Movie Review: Due Date

They say that the end of the world would be heralded by the coming of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. In return, I really think that Zach Gal . . .Galifin . . . Gallfinsiks (!?!!) or whatever that flabby, bearded, moronic source of insane humor with the Greek surname would herald theirs! Given enough time and with plenty of opportunities coming his way, that comedian (from hereon referred to as Zach G.) would surely conquer our hearts, minds and most probably our souls too if we let him. His comedic talent is so that it borders on being phenomenally world-altering!

I was really looking forward to this movie ever since I got wind of its previews some time back. Personally I haven’t really seen any fresh faces that have come along lately from American comedy films to have made such a splash on the public. This mind-mashing funny character who made me almost pee from laughing in last year’s smash hit The Hangover. I mean wow! I can practically still picture the scene where Mike Tyson gave him a mean swipe that knocked him out cold with Phil Collin’s song on the background.  

Following the hallowed tradition of the road-trip-cum-quarrelling-buddies genre, the comedic counter-point and other lead role falls on the chameleon-like yet always with a hint of neurosis acting of Robert Downey Jr. (recently starred in Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes) whose character plays an expectant father trying to hurry home from several states away to his wife (played by Michele Monaghan) who’s about to give birth. A brief series of teeth-clenching events gets him restricted from taking his flight or flying anywhere else for that matter, thanks in no small part to the aforementioned Zach G, who happens to be an aspiring Hollywood actor! Then the maddening misadventure starts when the two inconveniently start their semi-cross country travel together on the road to Los Angeles.

As expected, there’s plenty of laughs to be had, interspersed with marijuana, brawling with disabled citizens, some near-fatal accidents, an interlude with  Downey‘s long-time friend (Jamie Foxx in a brief role), more marijuana, Mexican law-enforcement, and something involving dead family members in powder form. The effect is like the taste from a concoction you get when you mix-in several different ingredients you casually find in your kitchen poured all at once in a blender and set in high-speed; a lumpy, slurpy, sometimes coarse, sweet, sour, a bit spicy, sometimes sickening but altogether indescribably unforgettable! And if all that hasn’t grabbed your attention yet, there’s a pet canine self-pleasuring act involved as well!