Due Date (2010)

Elevator Pitch: Peter Highman is flying from Atlanta back to LA, where his wife is about to have a baby, but due to the inadvertent use of some words he, and another passenger Ethan Tremblay are banned from flying. They a committed to driving across the country together, since Peter’s wallet in on the flight. Ethan smokes pot and has a small dog and is generally poorly organised. He intends to visit the Grand Canyon to scatter his father’s ashes, contained in a coffee can.  They visit one of his friends Heidi to buy marijuana and later after a car crash, one of Peter’s friends who lends then a Rangerover. Things continue to go wrong. Will Peter get to his wife’s bedside in time?

Content: There is no sex or nudity, but Ethan masturbates at one point, and so does his dog! Why? Dogs can lick their bits. The two travellers argue quite a bit. The scenes in their friends homes allow cameos by Juliette Lewis and Jamie Foxx. Peter punches an irritating boy in the stomach. There is a spectacular car crash. It seems possible that Peter is going to abandon Ethan, and at one point gets close to it. They accidentally get to the  Mexican border where there is excitement, and they steal a border control pick-up.

A View: This was Todd Phillips follow-up to “The Hangover” which might explain why it made a lot of money, despite it’s production expense.  Both the stars do what they do best, but even so there are not many funny moments. I enjoyed Peter’s way of dealing with a very irritating child – a punch in the stomach and I was impressed by the car crash. But that was not quite enough to make it fun. It is probably a film you could have on while doing something else.

Additional Info:  Ethan, an aspiring actor, seems to be seen in a episode of Two and Half Men. It was a specially shot scene on the real set