Trust me when I say this is one ‘double feature’ you won’t lose sleep over by missing it.
Truth be told, other than some plot-lines, they’re basically the same freakin’ movie. That’s right, once again Hollywood is just rehashing the same tired formulas over and over again.
And neither one is anywhere near as good as ‘Planes, Trains & Automobiles‘ – the ultimate buddy-road trip movie if you ask me.
It was totally coincidental that I watched these two movies within a few days of each other. With both of them I just wanted to watch something easy and that didn’t need me to think that much.
Too bad I hadn’t thought to watch something entertaining as well. 😉
Oh and you know the sad part? I’ve actually watched ‘Due Date‘ before, but had totally forgot that I’d seen it. Hahaha It obviously wasn’t that memorable the first time around, or maybe I’d thought it was so bad I tried to block it from my memory. lol
Ok, so here’s the general premise of both movies:
Due Date – Thanks to a misunderstanding on an airplane home, the straight-laced character (Robert Downey Jr.) agrees to drive cross-country with the somewhat annoying person (Zach Galifianakis) despite him being the cause of both of them not being able to fly.
Plot device – The straight-man (no pun intended) is just trying to get home to see his pregnant wife give birth to their first child.
Identity Thief – The straight-laced character (Jason Bateman) agrees to drive cross-country with the somewhat annoying person (Melissa McCarthy) who has stolen his identity, so they wouldn’t be able to board an airplane with the same name because of that.
Plot device – The straight-man is just trying to get home to save his job to ensure he can provide for his pregnant wife (again!) and two other children.
Not really that much different if you ask me. In both movies, the straight-laced character gets beaten up, handcuffed/arrested, and ends up a bloody mess.. and eventually comes to respect the annoying person they’re traveling with, accepting them into their respective families.
It’s really too bad that neither of these movies worked. I like most of the main actors in both movies (don’t get the appeal of Zach Galifianakis personally, but to each their own..), and I could see where each movie could potentially be really funny.
Bulls-eye! Let’s just remake something that was good to begin with!
But alas, they both followed a tired formula where each character comes to respect the other, or shows their heart of gold.. or whatever other plot devise the ‘writers’ decided to toss in by throwing darts at a board with ideas on it.
That is how they write this kind of movie, right?
So instead.. I recommend reading a good book. 😀
If not, why not revisit some classic 80’s comedy .. maybe ‘Planes, Trains & Automobiles‘ perhaps?
Here’s the trailer, just in case you were interested… 😉
Thanks for the tip. 🙂
Cool post – I was getting ready to write that they all comedy road movies these days are just pale imitations of Planes, Trains and Automobiles but then I get to the bottom of the article and there is the trailer to the definitive comedy road movie. Midnight Run is also a stone cold classic of the sub-genre 🙂
LOL Great minds and all that.. 😉 And I didn’t even think of Midnight Run actually. Been probably decades since I saw that one (and scary that I can say ‘decade’s lol).