"Due Date" provides adequate amount of laughs

Todd Phillips has had his hands on some of the best recent comedies, including the surprise hit "The Hangover." With "Due Date," Phillips returns again with a road trip movie, and while not as funny as some of Phillips' other work, "Due Date" is still a good laugh.

The premise for "Due Date" is familiar to anyone that has seen your typical road trip comedy. Peter (Robert Downey Jr.) is an architect with an anger problem who must get to his pregnant wife before she gives birth, and Ethan (Zach Galifianakis) is an aspiring actor. After Peter and Ethan are thrown off of a plane they must help each other get to Los Angeles before Peter's wife gives birth.

The film does several things that are standard for this type of film. The comedy in the film is similar to other recent comedies like "The Hangover," and "Old School," so if you aren't a fan of that type of comedy, you won't find anything different here.

The film is definitely funny, but it isn't without its share of problems. Galifianakis is playing mostly the same character that he played in "The Hangover": an idiot man-child. That isn't a huge problem, but it is worth mentioning because Galifianakis has shown that he can do something else in "Visioneers." Downey does a good job in the film, but he is only given two moods: really pissed off or really happy. This also points to a problem with the cohesiveness of the film; it feels like a string of unconnected scenes rather than one unified story.

The film is like an extra long episode of "Between Two Ferns," a web interview show that Galifiankis hosts, with all of the jokes, unevenness, and discomfort that that implies. Phillips has failed to make another classic, but it still manages to the funniest mainstream comedy in theaters right now.