Due Date: a decent rental but NOT the next Hangover

I went to see the movie Due Date on Saturday, so I thought it would make a good candidate for my first movie review on here.  The movie stars Zach Galifianakis AKA Alan (The Lone Wolf) from The Hangover, and people have been talking about it as the "next Hangover".  This fact put me off before even seeing it because any movie that says that is just trying too hard.  The Hangover was great partially because it wasn't expected to be so good. No one in it was particularly famous, so they could actually make it about the script and acting (a rare thing in Hollywood these days).  Who would have thought a Korean man jumping out of a car boot could be so funny!?!?  You can't manufacture that kind of comic genius!

Due Date also stars Robert Downey Jr. who is starting to make me nervous too because he seems to have gotten way too famous, way too quickly.  I know he's been around since the 80s but you'd be hard pushed to name anything decent he's been in before Iron Man, and all of a sudden he's in everything!  He reminds me a little bit of Johnny Depp who mainly seems to be famous because he makes a sexy pirate and because he's friends with Tim Burton but I'll save that rant for another time.

Anyway back to the movie review: Due Date was good but it wasn't great, and there weren't any big budget special effects that demand the big screen experience, so I'd put it firmly in the rental category.  Don't get me wrong, there were definitely some funny moments (which I won't go into because I hate spoilers!) and Zach Galifianakis did a fine job of playing an annoying but loveable idiot.  However, the plot is pretty much ripped off from Planes, Trains & Automobiles with a post 9/11 update so it doesn't get any points for originality.  It also has a cheesey over the top stoner scene which loses it even more points.

Rating: 6 out of 10, it was an enjoyable way to pass a couple of hours but I don't think I'd mind if I never saw it again.