Racing Against the Clock In Due Date: Will He Make It?

Paul Pizza
The Paw Print

Peter Highmen, played by Robert Downey Jr., is the main character of the newly released film “Due Date” in which Highmen must drive across country to make it back to L.A. for the birth of his first child. The 95 minute flick was produced by the same crew who created the extremely popular movie “The Hangover” and, although the bar was set high, “Due Date” is a close runner-up in recent comedies.  
The intro is an interesting scene were Peter leaves his wife an enormous list of names for the future child, and then leaves the hotel for the airport to fly back to the City of Angels.  Right as Peter pulls into the airport, Ethan Tremblay, an aspiring actor played by “The Hangover’s” Zack Galifianakis, dries his car and rips off Peter’s car door.  From then on, the day just gets worse for Peter, as he boards the plane to find none other than Ethan sitting behind him in first-class.  While on the plane, Peter and Ethan have a misunderstanding, making comments about bombs and terrorists, which scores them a spot on the nation’s No Fly list.
With the feds not allowing either to fly, and all luggage still left on board, the two are left with $60 and Ethan’s ID.  The two then begin on their cross country journey to make it back on time, but encounter numerous problems on the way back.  Ethan makes his first stop shortly after departing to purchase an illegal drug.  The roller coaster kicks into full spin as Ethan falls asleep behind the wheel, which leads to the Subaru Impreza flipping off an overpass, causing Peter to break his arm and leaving Ethan unscratched.
They continue on, running into more obstacles along the way. The next is seemingly their doom.  Ethan takes a wrong turn and the two end up going to Mexico, but Peter remains in the car as Ethan bails.  Peter is then locked up in a trailer thinking he will never make it back for the birth of his child, until Ethan steals a Mexican police truck, hooks it up to the trailer, and takes off, outrunning the police.
Ethan drops his father’s ashes off at the Grand Canyon, meanwhile, Peter gets a call that his wife has gone into labor. Both Peter and Ethan jump in the truck and speed towards Los Angeles; the two were yet again slowed down by a mishap, this time Ethan pulled a gun from the glove box and accidently shoots Peter while driving.  They stop and try patching up the wound, but continue on through the night.  As they arrived at the hospital, Peter passes out from blood loss, which causes him to end up missing the birth of his daughter, Rosie Highmen.
Although the flick had a bunch of witty humor and hilarious random rages by Peter, “The Hangover” still reigns supreme over “Due Date.”  Other characters in the film were played by Jamie Foxx, Michelle Monaghan, and Juliette Lewis, none of whom had a significant role, but adding humor to the already comedic performance by Downey Jr. and Galifianakis.