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Due Date

2010 · Directed by Todd Phillips

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Woke Score

51

Critic

🍿63

Audience

Ultra Based

Critics rated this 51 points above its woke score. Among Ultra Based films, this critic score ranks #1148 of 1469.

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Synopsis

Peter Highman must scramble across the US in five days to be present for the birth of his first child. He gets off to a bad start when his wallet and luggage are stolen, and put on the 'no-fly' list. Peter embarks on a terrifying journey when he accepts a ride from an actor.

Consciousness Assessment

Due Date represents the sort of mainstream comedy that emerged from the late 2000s with zero consciousness of progressive social sensibilities. Todd Phillips constructs a simple buddy narrative in which a type-A businessman and an eccentric aspiring actor traverse the country in a series of escalating misadventures. The film is content to exist as pure entertainment, indifferent to any broader cultural commentary. Its cast, while including some performers of color, treats these individuals as background fixtures rather than as subjects worthy of narrative attention. The humor derives from slapstick, character incompatibility, and absurdist situations, not from any interrogation of social structures or hierarchies. What remains striking about this film in retrospect is its complete imperviousness to the cultural concerns that would come to dominate discourse in the years following its release. It is a work of its era: a comedy about two men bonding over their journey, uncomplicated by self-awareness or any sense that the world might contain tensions worth examining.

Analysis generated by our Consciousness Algorithm

Critic Reviews

51%from 39 reviews
Time Out80

Phillips goes too far sometimes (border-jail breakout?), but his new direction is promising.

Joshua RothkopfRead Full Review →
New Orleans Times-Picayune75

It's hard to resist the pairing of such talented actors as Robert Downey Jr. and Zack Galifianakis - and they prove why here. They are funny guys, both of whom make the most of the material.

Mike ScottRead Full Review →
Orlando Sentinel75

Shockingly, it's funny. Often in shocking or at least wildly inappropriate ways.

Roger MooreRead Full Review →
San Francisco Chronicle25

The comedy never really takes off because it's phony.

Mick LaSalleRead Full Review →