“Due Date” is a somewhat divisive film prospect at The Playlist; half of us have enjoyed the clips and trailers we’ve seen from the film so far, while half of us feel that the advertising, at least, has been a little lazy and lowest-common-denominator. Either way, the movie, which opens in November, is likely to be one of the biggest hits of the season. Even with an R-Rating, the reteaming of Todd Phillips and Zach Galifianakis, the director and star of comedy megahit “The Hangover,” and adding arguably the biggest movie star in the world right now, Robert Downey Jr, to the mix can only result in a colossal haul of money, particularly considering that the trailer’s played like gangbusters to audiences in theaters every time we’ve seen it.
A new trailer hit overnight at Apple, and, while we still wonder if Galifianakis has been given a little too much free rein here, it’s certainly an improvement: the hirsute funnyman seems to have great chemistry with Downey Jr, and there’s a couple of big laughs — we love the Grand Canyon/Hoover Dam debate. More importantly, the embarrassing “You’d better check yourself before you wreck yourself” coda to the last clip is gone — as it hopefully is from the film itself. We also get more of a glimpse of the solid supporting cast; Jamie Foxx, Michelle Monaghan, Matt Walsh and Danny McBride all make appearances, while RZA, Alan Arkin and (*shudder*) Juliette Lewis will all turn up in the finished film.
We’ve got enough faith in the talent involved to still keep our fingers crossed for this: after all, it wouldn’t be the first comedy with a lowest-common-denominator trailer to turn out to be pretty solid (the clips for “Anchorman” or “Role Models,” for instance, weren’t particularly promising), and we imagine a red-band clip will be more revealing of what to expect. Either way, the film hits November 5th.