Review of "Due Date"

Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis deserve a better movie than "Due Date."Not that the film isn't funny. It is. Because it stars Downey and Galifianakis, two good talents on their own who have a fine comic chemistry together.

But this is pretty weak stuff considering the star power involved. It's a road-trip movie that starts at A and goes to Z with a series of ever-more-absurd skits in between. Most of the film's big laughs are in the trailer.

Beyond that, this is a dimwit movie, and we just had a dimwit movie a few months ago with "Dinner for Schmucks." Same basic premise, really, just without the road trip.

In a dimwit movie, one average guy (Downey here) ends up saddled with an overconfident dimwit (Galifianakis) who manages to mess things up every step of the way as they try to reach some goal together.

The average guy usually takes most of the pain while the dodo ends up unscathed. No matter what, they end up bonding and become unlikely best friends.

This shtick dates back to Abbott and Costello and beyond, so you can either look at it as classic or clichéd; but, at the very least, some new spin should be introduced if you're going to wheel it out again.

Director Todd Phillips' new spin seems to consist of leaning on car crashes and making the average guy something of a jerk. That's simply not enough.

Downey plays Peter Highman (Get it? Huh-huh), an architect scheduled to fly out of Atlanta back home to Los Angeles, where his wife (Michelle Monaghan) is due to give birth on Friday.

Unfortunately, Peter literally runs into Ethan Tremblay (Galifianakis), a portly-fuzzy aspiring actor, at the airport and Tremblay gets them both thrown off their flight and banned from further flights. Worse, Peter's wallet, ID and money are in his bag, which is on the plane he just missed.

So, desperate to be at the birth of his child, Peter accepts a ride with Ethan, and they set out on a cross-country trek filled with calamities, crudities and car wrecks, as well as some laughs.

There are cameos along the way — Juliette Lewis as a drug-dealing mom, Jamie Foxx as Peter's perfect friend in Dallas — but basically it's two guys and whatever car they happen to be in.

Director Phillips has built his name on big, dumb, off-color comedies ("Old School," "Starsky & Hutch," "The Hangover," heck, he even did "Road Trip") that clunk along with raunchy enthusiasm. This film will neither damage nor enhance his reputation.

But it had such possibilities considering its stars. Downey is a straight man who can also throw a solid comic punch (he does so here to great effect). This is an actor who can balance comedy and tragedy — give him something worth doing!

Here, he's just an unlucky jerk.

Two years ago, Galifianakis was virtually unknown. Post-"Hangover" he may be the hottest funnyman in movies. He earns the heat in this film with everything from his prancing walk to a slight lisp and his effortless delivery of lines such as "I have a photogenic memory."

But again, you keep wishing both actors were doing more than jumping through hoops. "Due Date" is funny enough, but it should have been funnier.