Why So Blu?

Due Date (Blu-ray Review)

I suppose it can be construed that Director Todd Phillips took on this project to give himself some much needed distance from his previous surprise hit (The Hangover) before tackling his next project, The Hangover 2 (currently in production).  I could completely understand if this was true and in all honesty, I would not blame him a bit before doing so.  However, maybe he was forced to take this on.  But really, who cares?  What it all comes down to is the big question of whether or not his outing was successful? And to be completely blunt here, there are some things that worked very well for me and other moments that didn’t quite pan out like I would have wanted them to.  But hey, that’s Hollywood folks.  We’ll pay for it either way to see those big star names like Robert Downey Jr.  Anyone ever hear of him?  That’s what I thought!

Film  

Of course, the movie I am referring to here is the upcoming Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis road trip comedy, Due Date.  The film was co-penned by Alan R. Cohen, Alan Freedland and Adam Sztykiel.  In addition to its top bill, the movie also co-stars Michelle Monaghan, Juliette Lewis, RZA, Danny McBride and Jamie Foxx.

Due Date was one of these films; you know the kind, which I was just praying that all the funny parts were not shown in the theatrical trailer.  Thankfully, they were not.  Phillips and crew left many hysterical and controversial clips out of the trailer.  I say controversial only because it touches on such taboo topics such as masturbation, interracial offspring and punching little kids (the funniest moment in my opinion).  If you are fine with all these, then you’ll be okay here.  Ha!  I already have you worried, don’t I?  Don’t worry; it’s all in good humor here.  Trust me.

Due Date tells the comedic tale of two unfortunate stranded travelers (Downey and Galifianakis), each trying to get to Los Angeles for their own individual reasons.  Peter (Downey) needs to get there in time for the birth of his child and attend to his expecting wife (Monaghan), while Ethan (Galifianakis) on the other hand, thinks he is going to make it in Hollywood after his father has just passed away.  Peter is a highly-strung individual (much like myself), while Ethan is a complete idiot (much like everyone else…just kidding), for lack of a better term.  Yes, sadly Galifianakis plays the same character here that he does in The Hangover.  You could have told me this was a spin off of the successful film and I would not have known the difference.  Downey is the glue here.  Had it not been for Downey’s performance, I think I would have grown very irate with the bumbling antics of Galifianakis.  Unfortunately, it does get old after awhile.

So essentially, Due Date is a race across the country to make it to Los Angeles on time and the hilarious blunders and interactions that happen to and between Peter and Ethan.  As I mention above, some things worked well here and others didn’t.  The items that didn’t work well were the things that felt stale (been done before kind of thing) and the humor of Galifianakis, that at times, feels like it is forced upon us, big time.  The things that did work well here are obviously everything Robert Downey Jr. and all the events I did not see coming like um…a masturbating dog, Downey’s interaction with a young kid and more risqué stuff like this.  I really don’t want to give anything else away.  I hate it when people do that to me.  Rest assured, there are some one-liners and comedic moments that will have even the most serious of people cracking a smile.  Come on, you know you want to.

Video  

Due Date’s1080p AVC MPEG-4 video encode is presented in a crisp and clean widescreen 2.40:1 aspect ratio presentation.  Besides some infrequent murky colors and earthy tones, I think you will be hard pressed to find anything wrong with this Warner Bros feature.  The onscreen image is always sharp, detailed and free of artifacts, white specks and blemishes.  That already makes this disc a winner.  But wait!  There’s more.  The black levels are exceptional throughout.  The stubble on Robert Downey Jr.’s face and every wavy curl of Zach’s fresh from beauty parlor’s perm is clearly visible to excite and gasp over.   You can even see the rain spots on the red paint of their rental car.  Now that’s what I call Blu-ray.  Of course, along with the Blu-ray package, you also get that three-dimensional depth of field thing going on here.  Other than the fact that the colors can be a bit of a drab at times, this disc is a winner in the video department.  Now let’s see how the audio measures up.

Audio  

Warner Bros. brings Due Date to the Blu-ray format with a fairly adequate 5.1 DTS-HS Master Audio surround mix.  Ambient sound effects are spaced nicely amongst the surround field, but like most comedies on Blu-ray, Due Date takes little risks in the audio department.  What I mean by that is, with the sole exception of a car chase where our road tripping buddies are escaping from Mexican authorities, there is little to write home about when it comes to describing the engagement of the rear channels.  This Blu-ray is very front heavy.  LFE is powerful when a few hip-hop and rock tracks present themselves, but for the most part, this film is very dialog driven.  But that’s where this Blu-ray shines.  I had no trouble at all hearing every spoken word.  The dialog is always loud, clear and intelligible throughout the entire runtime.  In my opinion, that makes the world of difference when enjoying a film of this nature.

Special Features  

Aright!  We are finally here!  This is my favorite part of a Blu-ray release…the Special Features.  Of course, I’m being facetious, but bear with me.  There’s not much here.  Take a look below.  Would I lie to you?  Thankfully, everything is presented in High-Definition, but that does not make up for the lack of quantity or quality for that matter, here.  Heck, if it wasn’t for the Digital Copy, I’m not sure I could even award this department a score of 1.  A DVD presentation of the film is worthless to me.  So anyway, below are all the Special Features you will find on this 2-disc set.  Enjoy!

• Complete Two And A Half Men Scene Featuring Ethan Tremblay (HD, 3 min.) – Ethan’s (Zach G.) full performance on his favorite television show, Two and a Half Men.
• Additional Scenes (HD, 4 min.) – There are three deleted scenes here that you can probably sleep easy knowing that you missed them.
• Due Date Action Mash-Up (HD, 1 min.) – Here’s a 1-minute compilation of the film’s comedic action.
• Due Date Too Many Questions Mash-Up (HD, 1 min.) – This one is one minute too long.  LOL.  This is yet another compilation of Ethan (Zach) bugging the hell out of Peter (RDJ) with all his never ending questions.
• Gag Reel (HD, 7 min.) – Can you believe this is a whole 7-minutes long?  Wow!  Neither can I.
• DVD Copy (SD) – This is completely worthless in my opinion.  Drink coaster, anyone?
• Digital Copy (SD) – Hell yeah!  At least I can do something with these now on my iPad and new Verizon iPhone.  Bring the Digital Copies on!

Final Thoughts  

While I’m not going to recommend you drop everything and pre-order this immediately on Blu-ray, I did like it well enough to warrant an excuse to check this one out some day in the near future.  But what it really comes down to is this.  Can you stand traveling across country, via automobile, with Zach Galifianakis?  Obviously, that premise is what makes this film tick.  Seeing Robert Downey Jr. be a prick and his reaction to all of this is worth the price of admission, in my opinion.  The Blu-ray features a sweet A/V package, but ultimately falls very short in the Special Features department.  So you have to ask yourself.  How important are Special Features to you?  If you are like me, then you probably already clicked the pre-order link below.  Good job!  Due Date arrives on Blu-ray this Tuesday, February 22^nd.