First "Due Date" Trailer

Here's the first trailer for the upcoming Due Date, which is director Todd Phillips follow-up to his hugely successful The Hangover.   The film sees him pairing with Zach Galifinakis once again and includes Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx as well. (It seems the wild success of The Hangover has afforded Phillips the ability to add some A-list talent to his films.)  The movie sounds like an update of Planes, Trains and Automobiles, using a similar premise, two men are forced to travel cross country together, with Downey Jr. filling the Steve Martin role, playing an expectant father trying to get home for the birth of his child and forced to travel with Galifinakis' loose cannon character.  The casting is interesting.  Galifinakis is a no-brainer for this comedy, and Jamie Foxx, as most people know, started his career in sketch comedy on 'In Living Color,' but few recall that Downey Jr. also has roots in TV comedy as well.  Back in 1985, when he was just twenty, he joined the cast of 'Saturday Night Live.'   He lasted just one season - one of the shows worst ever - before a massive purge saw the bulk of the cast shit-canned, but his early films, movies like Weird Science, Back to School and Johnny B. Goode were all comedies.  Downey Jr.'s comedic abilities have been under utilized for the bulk of his career, though he was hilarious in his Oscar-nominated turn in Tropic Thunder, so I was pleased when I heard that he would be joining a Todd Phillips movie.   This trailer is hilarious, however, it appears that Downey Jr. is just playing the straight man while Galifinakis does all of the heavy lifting.  I hope, in the full film, Downey Jr. is given a chance to show his comedic chops.

Check out the video below of Robert Downey Jr. on SNL (with cast-mate Anthony Michael Hall, who was just 17 when he joined the cast and would go on to do Weird Science and Johnny B. Goode with Downey Jr.)   This sketch is awful, and Downey Jr. is as smooth as burlap in the sketch.  I give credit to Dennis Miller for not reaching over and smacking them.