Reviews From a Modest Movie Buff (Due Date)

So as I recall, I said I was going to do this clear back in January, and it's now May...*shakes head* Well, here it is anyway.

Peter Highman (Robert Downey, Jr.) is an uptight businessman, and he's particularly uptight since his wife is about to have their first child. On a flight from Atlanta to Los Angeles, he meets Ethan Tremblay (Zach Galifianakis), an well-meaning but disaster-prone aspiring actor. Suffice it to say, it's all downhill from there.

Watching the previews, I kept thinking to myself, "There's no way this will be as great as it looks." As far as I'm concerned, it was. In fact, I rate it as the second funniest movie I've ever seen.

I've been a fan of Robert Downey, Jr. for some time (he's a favorite from Gothika, I freaking loved him in Sherlock Holmes, and I'd better not get started on Iron Man), but I've never seen him this crazy before. He starts off as a rude, rude guy, but you grow to love him...and sympathize with him for having to put up with a clown like Ethan. He's like an onion--no, I can't pull out the cliches! Think of something original! ... All right, he's like an onion--he's got a very sharp taste and quite a bit of a bite to him and he makes your eyes water, though not necessarily in a good way, but you still have to appreciate his flavor. For my part, I loved his swearing the best. I know, cussing is rude and vulgar, but the delivery is comically explosive (especially in that incident on the border!).

I'd only seen Zach Galifianakis in The Hangover where, surprise surprise, he played another inept dolt. (On a side note, that one was one of the most shameless movies I've seen, yet it was so ridiculous I had to laugh.) I've gotta hand it to him, though, he carries this dolt rather well. If you've seen the previews, you might recall this bit at the Grand Canyon:

E: I could have sworn it was man-made!

P: No, it's not man-made. It's formed by nature over millions of years. It's not the Hoover Dam.

E: I know it's not; that was built by the Pilgrims.

P: ...Also incorrect.

That's pretty much a standard for Ethan, and there was that tiny bit where he carried his father's ashes in a coffee can and Jamie Foxx accidentally drank dear Daddy Tremblay... Again, Ethan grows on you. He's like mildew...no, really, he's like mildew. You can't get rid of him, no matter how hard you try, so eventually you just get used to him.

All right, that's for the stars, now onto everything else...this is R-rated, so there's some language including a few explosive F-bombs, drug use that leads to mayhem in Mexico, sexual humor here and there, and a scene at a rest stop in Shreveport that's so tasteless it's uncalled for but handled with a twist that it's still funny. So it's not for the easily-offended. It really depends on what you'd call funny, but then my own sense of humor is a little schizophrenic and I thought it was hilarious. It got muddled reviews, but who cares what the critics think, right? They're paid to be picky.

I guess the best way to put it is this: It's a more off-color version of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Does that work?

Your pal,
Angels