In Due Date, Robert Downey Jr. plays Peter, a man with a very real anger problem. He’s boarding a plane in Atlanta to return home to Los Angeles where his pregnant wife (Michelle Monaghan) is planning on having a c-section in the next few days. But then he meets Ethan Tremblay (Zack Galifianakis), who gets the both of them kicked off the plan, put on no-fly lists, and paired together in road trip across the country filled shenanigans.

Early in the trip, the two stop by a pot dealers home (Juliette Lewis). While Ethan is doing business with her, Peter is asked to watch her two children, a son around ten, and a girl around seven. Peter’s anger rears its head at the misbehaving boy, and he gut punches him, forcing the child to double over. Peter tells the boy that if he tells his mother, he’ll do it again. Clearly, Phillips isn’t condoning child abuse. But he clearly asserts his interest in pushing the boundaries with this comedy. Mixing mainstream trends with the limits of what people will put up with. Jody Hill did this with Observe and Report. But she did it much better, making these scenes not painfully awkward, but confusing, and embarrassing for the filmmakers.

While the scripts relies on the preemptive protection of satire to justify it’s weaknesses, the argument is almost null since it chooses to mix the edgy, in-your-face non-comedy with some real attempt at sincerity and heart. Yes, it turns out that Ethan has just come from his father’s funeral and is more distraught than it first appears. Peter, despite the anger thing, opens his heart and takes Ethan right in. It seems that the scriptwriters (and there are a whopping six people receiving writers’ credits here) couldn’t decide what direction they wanted to go with.

Neither did Mr. Phillip’s actors. Mr. Downey phones it in here. It’s particularly evident in a scene where both Peter and Ethan are stone, driving through the cosmos. All acting cues seem to be borrowed from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Galifianakis, with his continuing refusal to shave the beard, reminds us that while he may actually possess the range to do something more, he’s going to cling to the shtick that got him famous until he’s worn out his welcome. Due Date seems to be delivered stillborn.

1 out of 4 stars

The plot falls around a trucker named Diane (Monaghan).  She’s fiercely independent, choosing her profession because of the solitary and autonomous lifestyle it affords her.  Her married neighbor and closest friend Runner (Nathan Fillion) is crazy about her, and she about him, but they keep their friendship platonic.  Diane’s life is upset when, now follow me here, her son, whom she hasn’t seen since he was a baby, is dropped off on her doorstep by her ex’s girlfriend.  Her ex Leonard (Benjamin Bratt) has colon cancer.  It’s real bad.  The girlfriend (Joey Lauren Adams), who has agreed to watch the boy while Leonard is in the hospital, has to go away to her mother’s funeral for a month, and Diane is stuck with this stranger whom she abandoned.

The plot basically consists of Diane’s son calling her a bitch a lot, but the two, through lots of shared experiences (he stops a man raping her, she beats up a couple of kids who knocked him down).  It’s some really cliche stuff.  Seriously.

This is Mottern’s first foray into film.  He wrote the script as well as directed.  His skills behind the camera are overshadowed by the kitchy plot.  It’s impossible to say whether there’s real talent there.  The cast as a whole performs adequately, except for Bratt whose small role is stiff and poorly written.  Fillion actually performs above average, something I haven’t seen him do before.  But, of course, all the praise should go to Monaghan who deserves and Oscar nom for this gutsy performance.  She even learned to drive a ‘big rig’ for the role (which was original to go to Demi Moore).  If that’s not dedication, what is?  The film is a melodramatic joke, but I’d still rather see Monaghan in stuff like this rather than Eagle Eye.

1 out of 4 stars

I’m not sure it’s director D.J. Caruso’s fault either.  The script he had to work with is a big steaming pile of poo.  It’s no secret that Eagle Eye had not less than six official re-writes of the script…a script that was co-written by John Glenn and Travis Wright (both of whom haven’t really written anything before this).

The story follows Jerry Shaw (Shia LaBoeuf, a fiercely independent copy boy who hates his family and the world.  One day, he finds his bank account balance about $750,000 higher than it usually is.  His apartment is filled with guns, fake passports, and enough materials to build several large bombs.  It’s here that he gets a phone call from a mysteriously emotionless female voice that gives him directives that will keep him alive and out of the reach of the FBI.  Meanwhile, Rachel (Michelle Monaghan) receives a call from the same voice, threatening the safety of her son if she doesn’t comply to the directions she’s given.  In this panicked state, the two are thrown together and are sent all over the place doing whatever the voice asks, breaking laws, and leaving innocent bystanders dead in their wake.  Two high ranking government officials (Rosario Dawson and Billy Bob Thorton) are hot on their trail the whole time.

Caruso did what he could with the materials he was given.  There were actually some very impressive explosions, car chases, graphics.  But harping on these same stupid themes that have plagued our theaters for the last 7 years (i.e. fear of all middle-easterners, fear of being mistaken for a terrorist, fear of ‘Big Brother’), the viewer is just offended (or should be) fifteen minutes into the film.  There were also some serious continuity issues as well.  Logic was thrown out the window on this one, so don’t expect a very coherent narrative.

Michelle Monaghan is, as always, great.  Although after last year’s Gone Baby Gone, I can’t figure out why she’d stoop to this (maybe it’s because Steven Spielberg is listed as an executive producer).  And as much as I love to hate LaBeouf, I really didn’t have a problem with his performance.  All in all, this is slightly less-than-average popcorn flick, that will entertain you, but leave you sad you watched it as you walk out of the theater with your head hung with shame.

1 out of 4 stars

Rottentomatoes: 27% – Cream of the Crop: 23%