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Category:    Home > Reviews > Comedy > Road Movie > Due Date (2010/Warner Brothers Blu-ray & DVD combo pack)

Due Date (2010/Warner Brothers Blu-ray & DVD combo pack)

 

Picture: B/C     Sound: B/C+     Extras: C     Film: C+

 

 

Due Date is a passable comedy from Todd Phillips, whose prior directing work within the genre can be seen in the features Road Trip and Old School.  Zach Galifianakis is on board for a second time, having worked with the director in one of his more recent comedies, The Hangover.  Being a fan of Galifianakis' standup, I personally felt that he wasn't given enough of an opportunity to shine the last time around, despite audience response finding him to be one of The Hangover's standout personalities.

 

Now pushed to the foreground, he shares top billing here with Robert Downey Jr., as they play unwillingly joined traveling partners trying to reach L.A. The film draws on the 1987 Steve Martin and John Candy vehicle, Planes, Trains & Automobiles for inspiration foremost in the comic road movies category, but stops short of copying it note for note.  Still, comparisons are inevitable, and in this case, the original wins out.

 

Curiously, while this edition includes a bare bones DVD of the film (as well as a digital copy, contained on the same disc), any advertisement of their inclusion was absent from the copy I received.  If this holds true for other copies of the film in circulation, it leads me to believe that this additional content is planned to be packed with the Blu-ray only in the short-term.

 

Picture quality of the Blu-ray disc is excellent, and sees the film presented in 1080p high definition with an anamorphically enhanced aspect ratio of 2.4:1.  The Blu-ray sound is presented in 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio.  The DVD features an aspect ratio of 1.77:1 and a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound mix.  Picture on the lesser format is noticeably lower in quality, but as a bonus disc it looks just fine.  Bonus content is fairly weak, and consists mostly of deleted scenes and clip mash-up compilations.

 

The film has its share of laughs, and while not as off the wall as Todd Phillips earlier output, this still comes as recommended viewing, if only for a rental.

 

 

-   David Milchick


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