Due Date

The elephant in the room, of course, is The Hangover which is one of the best comedies of the last decade or so. Due Date stars one of the stars of that film, Zach Galifianakis, and is also from the same writer / director. So, is it as good as The Hangover? Well, of course not. But did anyone really expect it to be? I tried to keep my expectations at a minimum so I wouldn't be disappointed. It sort of worked.
The story is simple - Peter (Robert Downey Jr.) is a first time expectant father and he is rushing home to Los Angeles from Atlanta for the scheduled C-section birth of his baby (with is the lovely and underused Michelle Monaghan). Well, he manages to get thrown off his plane thanks to a run in with a loony named Ethan (Galifianakis) who likes to throw around the words "terrorist" and "bomb" while on a plane. Not only do they get thrown off the plane, but also they find themselves on a do not fly list. It seems Peter's wallet with his credit cards and money is in his bag on the plane en route to Los Angeles so he can't even rent a car. Luckily though, Ethan can and they begin a road trip. Of course, craziness ensues - run ins with crazy pot dealers (Juliette Lewis) and crazier Western Union employees (Danny McBride) as well as car accidents and an ill fated trip to Mexico. Jamie Foxx shows up as Peter's bestie who may or may not have had an affair with his wife nine months ago. Also, Peter has a dog named Sonny, a cremated father in a coffee can (which they drink, of course) and wants to move to Hollywood to be an actor on Two and a Half Men, his favorite TV show.
So, that's the plot in a nut shell. Does it work? Sometimes. The film starts off insanely slow. In fact, the first half is a little boring. But it starts to get better (more laughs, better pacing) somewhere in eastern Texas. So, the second half is a whole lot better than the first. The ladies of the film are terribly underused. Foxx merely has a cameo. McBride does his same old funny asshole shtick (which I still love because I love him). So, ultimately this movie belongs to its leads and on that level, it most certainly works. These two guys have a chemistry together. Even though Galifianakis is playing a version of the same character he always does, he's still funny. I know a day is going to come when I get really sick of him, like Michael Cera, but that day hasn't arrived yet. All in all, Due Date is a lot of fun as long as you don't expect the greatness of The Hangover.
Grade: C

Evening, Catch and Release (DVD)

Evening - There's one problem that most movies with flashback plots suffer from: one portion of the film is usually far more interesting than the other. Evening suffers from that same problem. Evening tells the story of a woman named Ann (Vanessa Redgrave) on her deathbed in present time. She is being tended to by her constantly fighting daughters Nina (Toni Collette) and Connie (Natasha Richardson). Connie has it all: the husband, the kids, the big fancy house. Nina is trying to get her life together. Every few years she finds herself with a new job and a new man. The two sisters struggle to rebuild their relationship while they watch their mother die. While on her death bed, Ann starts going on and on about people her daughters never met or heard of. She also starts remembering a certain weekend in her life where she learned a lot about friendship and love. The flashbacks are the more interesting story line here. It follows Young Ann (Claire Danes) who attends the fancy wedding of her best friend Lila (Mamie Gummer... Meryl Streep's daughter). While at the wedding, she finds herself in a sort of love triangle with her best friends little brother Buddy (Hugh Dancy) and the good-looking doctor Harris (Patrick Wilson) who also happens to be the love of Lila's life... although she's marrying someone else. Glenn Close shows up as Lila's uppity mother and Meryl Streep makes an appearance near the end as the elder Lila (how appropriate!). The performances, of course, are wonderful. How could they not be with a cast like this? Still, for all of these amazing women, guess who gives the best performance in the entire film? Hugh Dancy! He's a revelation. Where did this guy come from and how can he play a drunk with such charm and vulnerability? If I had any weight at all with Oscar voters, I would start putting it all behind Dancy right now. I really hope they remember him come December. The film itself is a little uneven. It goes from being utterly interesting to a tad boring. Of course, Toni Collette keeps things interesting in the present tense storyline. The flashbacks are the superior part of the film. Yet, eventhough it's a tad uneven, the writing and performances and script are strong enough to not mind all that much. Plus, the movie is an emotional ride. It's a chick flick of the greatest kind. It may not be the best movie of the year... or the summer for that matter... but's definitely worth your time.
Grade: B


Catch and Release - I had a friend warn me to stay away from this movie because it was surely one of the worst movies of the year. Maybe it's because my expectations were so utterly low (I was expecting something as bad as Evan Almighty here) but I didn't think the movie was really all that bad. I mean, it could have been worse. It could have suffered from not starring two charismatic and charming actors: Jennifer Garner and Timothy Olyphant. Sure, the script was absolutely far fetched but aren't most romantic comedies far fetched? Anyway, the story line follows Grey (Garner) whose fiancee dies just before her wedding. Instead of a reception, she has to go through a funeral instead. Soon after, she realizes she can't pay her rent without him so she moves in with his friends (one of whom is Kevin Smith... playing Kevin Smith... this is either a good or bad thing depending on how much you like Kevin Smith). Soon, she finds herself reluctantly falling in love with her dead fiancee's best friend (Olyphant) eventhough she hated him in the beginning. Juliette Lewis turns up as a woman the dead fiancee slept with and she has a violent son who may or may not be his illigitmate child. The scripts not perfect, the dialogue is lacking, it's not as funny as it thinks it is and all of the romantic comedy cliches are there. Still, it's not a terrible movie. There are times when it's entertaining and it's actually enjoyable enough to not bore you to tears.
Grade: C-