There are likely to be few critics in the country who’ll fail to point out that “Due Date” – with its slapstick road-trip dynamic, its fat-guy/slim-guy co-stars, its prickly-mushy buddy movie formula – plays like a latter-day “Planes, Trains and Automobiles.”

Robert Downey Jr., Zach Galifianakis

But instead of the buttoned-down businessman Steve Martin heading home for Thanksgiving, we have the fidgety architect and family man Robert Downey Jr. homeward bound for the imminent birth of his first child. Both are uptight control freaks.

And instead of amiable slob John Candy, a shower-ring salesman with a penchant for telling long, pointless stories, we have neurotic slob Zach Galifianakis (the reigning John Belushi of the times) as a pot-smoking aspiring actor with abandonment issues owing to the recent death of his beloved dad. Both are annoying but ultimately endearing screw-ups.

And instead of director John Hughes effectively moving from teenaged angst to middle-aged anxiety, we have director Todd Phillips (“The Hangover,” “Road Trip”) pedaling his brand of raunchy, R-rated, over-the-top physical comedy through some very familiar territory.

The imperatives of the two films are the same: to get home before the holiday/birthday, despite a maddening series of comically escalating setbacks, delays, detours, disasters and deeply humiliating misadventures.

Anyone who has seen “Due Date’s” preview trailers or commercials already knows the set-up: Downey’s persnickety architect Peter Highman gets bounced off an Atlanta-to-L.A. airline flight due to the creepy antics of Ethan Tremblay (Galifianakis), a neurotic, motor-mouthed Hollywood hopeful. Through a series of tortured coincidences, the mismatched pair end up sharing a car (along with Ethan’s self-gratifying French bulldog, Sonny) for a grueling cross-country drive.

And the clock is ticking as Peter’s impatient wife (an underused Michelle Monaghan) is expecting the couple’s first child and wants him home, and as Ethan claims to have an important meeting with a big-shot L.A. casting director.

This sets up the dynamic in which the needy, erratic, insanely upbeat Ethan invites disaster at every turn as he painfully, gradually ingratiates himself to his high-strung, judgmental but not totally unsympathetic traveling mate.

There’s an odd pit stop to purchase pot from a spacey Alabama dealer (Juliette Lewis in yet another short but pithy supporting turn). There’s a peculiar sidetrack in which Peter enlists the aid of an old college friend (Jamie Foxx). There’s a truly bizarre detour over the Mexican border followed by a credibility-stretching car chase. There’s a tangential trip to the Grand Canyon rim to release the coffee-can ashes of Ethan’s dead dad and to allow the bickering buddies a nicely sappy bonding moment.

Although the script by a committee of writers feels like it was written by, well, a committee of writers, Downey and Galifianakis generate enough endearing if annoying buddy chemistry (or anti-chemistry as the filmmakers insist) to hold it all together and keep us cheering for its carefully calculated odd couple – although it’s often a long, bumpy road between laughs. The always watchable Downey works his slow-burn to perfection, and Galifianakis manages to invest even the most predictable material with a wild, weird, unpredictable energy.

“Due Date” won’t make anyone forget the superior “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” but it packs just enough shaggy-dog likeability to make us willing to ride along.

- Dennis King

“Due Date”

R
1:40
2 1/2 stars
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Zach Galifianakis, Michelle Monaghan, Jamie Foxx, Juliette Lewis
(Language, drug use, sexual content)

Juliette Lewis

BY GENE TRIPLETT

Juliette Lewis has come by her Hollywood rock ‘n’ roll wild child image honestly, picking film roles and playing music that are dangerous and different.

Since stunning movie audiences when she was barely 18 as Danielle Bowden in Martin Scorsese’s 1991 remake of “Cape Fear” (earning  a supporting Oscar nomination), the Los Angeles native has tackled some of the edgiest characters out there, including a serial slayer in Oliver Stone’s “Natural Born Killers,” a psycho-killer’s girlfriend in Dominic Sena’s “Kalifornia,” a corrupt cop’s mistress in Peter Medak’s cult favorite “Romeo is Bleeding,” a worldly-wise young drifter in Lasse Hallstrom’s “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape,” a mentally challenged woman in Garry Marshall’s “The Other Sister,” and a nine-months-pregnant kidnap victim in Christopher McQuarrie’s “The Way of the Gun.”

In 2003, Lewis took a break from acting to satisfy her musical urges, which were just as exotic as her dramatic appetites, forming a band called Juliette and the Licks, shaking up a punk-pop concoction that was equal parts Iggy Pop, P.J. Harvey and ’90s alt-rock, and filling two full-length albums with it (“You’re Speaking My Language,” “Four On the Floor”) in 2005-06.

In 2009, she went solo, expanding the colors of her musical palette — with a touch here and there of the blues — on “Terra Incognita,” before turning back to acting in earnest.

And earnest she is in Tony Goldwyn’s “Conviction,” the true story of working-class Massachusetts woman Betty Anne Waters (Hilary Swank) who put herself through law school and spent 18 years proving her imprisoned brother Kenny (Sam Rockwell) innocent of murder.

Lewis is already drawing critical raves for her brief but indelible performance as an unprincipled, low-living woman whose testimony puts Kenny in jail.

She kicked off our recent phone interview by complimenting my “nice accent,” of all things, making me self-conscious about my Okie drawl. So, I asked about our mutual Oklahoma City acquaintance, Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips.

A: Well, you know, I met him a couple of times at his shows so I don’t know him past that, other than I’m a big fan of his, and he seems like a real good guy.

Q: The reason I asked is because you actually appear in the Flaming Lips documentary “The Fearless Freaks.”

A: I know, I remember that show. Me and my sister went there, and we had our own animal suits that we rented. We didn’t know that they gave you suits, so we came with our own. And I got to be an animal onstage.

Q: What kind of animal were you?

A: I think I was a mouse.

Q: When was that?

A: Oh, that was like six years ago. It was before I was touring with my own band.

Q: Bet that was fun. Well, let’s talk about “Conviction.” You were fantastic in this film. With the little time that you were in it, you made more of an impression on me than anyone else in the cast.

A: Oh wow, I appreciate that. Yeah it’s been really wild because I didn’t make movies for about five years because I was just making records and touring, and that became my main bread and butter. So I turned stuff down because I just wanted to give everything to my music. So it was only last year I started doing films again. So it’s been really exciting for me to just play all kinds of different roles.

No matter how big or small the part is … this is a perfect movie that gave me the opportunity to do something I’d never done in film before, which was to completely transform. I didn’t want you to see me anywhere, any of my mannerisms. And also I never played a part where in one scene I had to go through so many transitions or emotions, you know, like between feeling guilty and grief-stricken to vengeful and then being totally disconnected. And then at the end being manipulative.

So yeah, it was a really wild thing to be a part of.

Q: Did you pursue this role, or did they come to you with it?

A: Oh no, Tony (Goldwyn) just offered it to me, Tony the director. And I just make a decision based on “does this give me something new to do in film?” And I felt it did, but I’m also slowly finding my way back into movies again, and I feel like this is a new chapter in my career, or it’s the beginning of one, you know, in my 30s now. This is the most dramatic thing I’ve done in the last 10 years. I was out on “The Switch” earlier this year, which is a comedy, and I’ll be in “Due Date” which is another comedy in November.

Q: What kind of preparation or research process did you go through for this role in “Conviction”?

A: This movie was really interesting because there was a world of research. Because it’s a true story and this person is a real person. I never met her, but I had all the ingredients there, that she lied and she kept lying, and I knew she was an alcoholic. I studied with a dialect coach, a woman named Liz Himelstein, to get her accent together.

But with that said, every personality is different. And a lot of the essence of the part is something that I have to sort of channel and come up with.

So I added the ingredients like the facts of the case. Like the scenes I’m in, that’s all verbatim things she said in interviews.

So even the way she messes up phrases, that’s her actual language. But the way in which she conveys her feelings, that was left for my interpretation.

Q: There was one word in there that was really off-kilter, that caught everybody’s attention.

A: “Railroad?” That was in the script. And I thought it was a typo. And I told the writer, “Don’t you wanna fix this?” And she went, “Oh no, that’s what she said.” And she said “stature of limitations” (instead of) statute of limitations.

That was really fun, and then of course makeup and hair, that was a huge part. ‘Cause I wanted you to see the amount of damage that she’d been through over 18 years. When you see, you know, when you can see a person and you can go, “Wow, where have they been?” And I wanted you to feel that.

Q: I know you said the script was verbatim, but how much did you bring to this character beyond that?

A: Well, all of the behavior and where she gets emotional, where she gets angry, all of that is the way I interpret the dialogue. And then, of course, when I’m getting up to fill my drink, or if I’m being distracted, all those things are my physical language.

But as far as lines, I added a couple of lines but that’s pretty much as written. It’s just sort of the life I gave it is something else. You can’t really write a person’s interpretation of it.

Q: You mentioned “Due Date,” which stars Robert Downey Jr. Could you tell me a little bit about that film?

A: That’s a real cameo, and it’s one scene. (Director/co-writer) Todd Phillips, he just calls me up and says, “Hey, I got a part for you,” and then I come down. He’s proven himself as one of the best comedic directors out there right now, and this movie with Downey, and first of all, Zach Galifianakis is one of my favorite comedians. Downey, I played with, of course, in “Natural Born Killers.” It was a fun day at the office for me with those two.

Q: So are you doing anything at all musically, or putting it on hold for a while?

A: Yes. I just toured the states and Canada in a van, no less. And we were on a monthlong tour and we didn’t play Oklahoma, but I was out with The Pretenders last year and Cat Power was pretty incredible.

And so now I’m on my downtime. It’s the gestation period. I’m going to be writing more, and I’ll probably make another record next year. But now I’m finding the balance, because I was pretty much just making music and touring for five years, and I really feel like I found a strong, good solid audience that is gonna take the ride with me when I do it again.

Q: The music you’re making with The New Romantiques, how does that differ from the music you were making with The Licks?

A: Well, they’re not called The New Romantiques. I flirted with that name for a minute, and then it was out on the Internet, and blah, blah, blah. But “Terra Incognita” is a proper solo album in that it was written with a good friend of mine. I wrote half of it on piano and then (Omar Rodriquez-) Lopez of Mars Volta produced it and he also played instruments on it, and then I put a band together after the fact.

So, the way I approached songwriting was completely different, and I focused a lot more on melody and space and dimension in the music and the songs. Big old guitar riffs and rock drums. Because with The Licks it was proper, straight-up-and-down guitar rock, and on this new record I have a blues song called “Hard Lovin Woman,” I have this really what I hope to be or aspired to be a kind of Bowie-esque, softer song called “Suicide Dive Bombers,” and then your banging rock ‘n’ roll track, “Terra Incognita.” And so it goes all over the place, and I feel like it’s a real personal record. It’s just me and my different musical tastes.

I’m about to release a new video that’ll come out next month. But I always tell people to go on MySpace and all that jazz to hear the music.

Q: Is the next record going to be more of what we’re hearing on “Terra Incognita”?

A: No, it’s funny because I feel like every new thing musically is a reaction to the last. So my next record, I’ve already been writing the songs. It’s all really rhythmic. I’m an explorer, adding more electronic sounds to the drumbeats, and then it’s really hooky choruses. It’s just totally different. It’ll be a really fun record where “Terra Incognita” was more sort of my weird record, for lack of a better description.

It’s not gonna be too long. That’s the thing. I got into this game way too late and I have so much to say and do, so I’m not gonna wait a year.

Q: I look forward to hearing it. Well, I’ve already taken up my time allotted so I’ll turn you loose.

A: “Turn Me Loose,” that’s a Loverboy song. “Turn Me Loose.” OK, I’ll see you later. Bye.

Listed on wimgo Movies under Biography

BY GENE TRIPLETT

Zach Galifianakis

TORONTO — Zach Galifianakis is settling down and getting serious at 41.

Well, somewhat anyway.

When you’re starring in a movie that’s being shown at the Toronto International Film Festival there are certain obligations you have to meet, like going to lots of parties and screenings and such, which should be no biggie for a guy whose breakthrough big-screen role was as a supreme party animal in “The Hangover.”

But that was just acting.

“Tired,” he says, when someone asks him how he’s doing at the beginning of a roundtable interview promoting his new film, “It’s Kind of a Funny Story.”

He mumbles the single-word answer around a mouthful of cinnamon roll, which he’s brought into a small room full of reporters and Sunday morning sunshine.

“Sorry,” he says, swallowing. “A little tired. I think the younger version of me inside is like, ‘Hey, still gotta go out and have a few drinks.’ And then I get home and, ‘Why was I out having a few drinks?’ It’s so disappointing these days. I hate the loud music, and you’re known for being in movies. People bug the s— out of you. It’s a no-win situation. The last thing I wanna do is talk about stuff that I’ve been promoting all day, and then you feel like you’re promoting it again when you’re out.

“I haven’t seen one movie. But I’ve been out for dinner and drinks for the last three nights.” Then a slight, sly grin creases that brown beard as he adds, “And probably will tonight.”

Galifianakis certainly doesn’t look as battered and baggy-eyed as he did in that drinking movie, when he played the weird, oddly childlike future brother-in-law who harbored a desperate need for male bonding and was prone to sudden, inappropriate utterances and behaviors in public.

Now he’s looking clean and neat in a navy-blue hoodie, jeans and sneakers, no socks, and his thick head of curly brown hair is tousled, but in a naturally cool sort of way. The eyes look a bit sleepy but not dissipated. And he’s gamely ready for another day — and probably night — of promoting his new movie.

But he’s enthusiastic about it, because this is the closest he’s yet come to playing drama. Sure, he’s weird and funny in it too, and he’s portraying a mental patient, so maybe there is a little typecasting involved here. But some of his scenes in this dramedy from writer-directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck are real heartbreakers.

“Yes, I’d been in a movie called ‘The Hangover,’ which is kinda known, and I wanted to make sure that the next thing I did was not exactly in the same heartbeat as that,” Galifianakis says. “So it was a conscious thing. Plus those directors are great directors, and I’d seen their movies (“Half Nelson,” “Sugar”) and I was kind of very flattered that they would ask somebody like me, who’s probably known for a little more outlandish stuff, to be in the movie.

“I am playing these parts of nut jobs, but this one I was trying to make him a bit more of a thoughtful nut job.”

“It’s Kind of a Funny Story” is based on a novel of the same name by Ned Vizzini, about a suicidal 16-year-old named Craig (played in the film by Keir Gilchrist of TV’s “United States of Tara”) who checks himself into a Brooklyn hospital and finds himself in the adult psychiatric ward because the youth ward is temporarily closed. There, he meets a kindred spirit in Noelle (Emma Roberts), another displaced teen with self-destructive tendencies.

Galifianakis plays Bobby, a moody adult patient who takes Craig under his wing, becomes his mentor, and is in turn mentored by the teen. The comedian-turned-actor admitted he was a little skeptical about working with young people, but there were no problems.

“These guys are mature young kids,” he says. “Emma comes from a Hollywood family (daughter of Eric Roberts, niece of Julia Roberts) and Keir is super mature. They were the mature ones, and I wasn’t. … I don’t really hang out with teenagers that age. For a long time, I haven’t. So, I didn’t know what they’re like these days. I don’t like teenagers. If I see them in the subway, I’ll go to the next car. I’ll cross the street if I see ‘em coming down the street.

“But (Gilchrist and Roberts) were very professional to work with. They were pretty serious about their work. More serious I think than some of the adults on the set, which was interesting to see.”

But Galifianakis was also serious about the role of Bobby. It’s a character with emotional troubles not altogether unfamiliar to the comedian.

“Yeah, from an early age I kinda knew that I wanted to figure out how (to be in show business), but I went to college and did the regular college things,” he says. “I promised my parents that I would have something to fall back on. And then I had a nervous breakdown in college, and then I quit and went to New York with the intention of trying to be in show business. But I had no idea how to go about it.”

Obviously, Galifianakis has figured it out. He now has a regular gig on the HBO comedy series “Bored to Death” with Jason Schwartzman and Ted Danson, he’s starring opposite Robert Downey Jr. in the upcoming comedy “Due Date” from “Hangover” director Todd Phillips, and he’s set to work with Phillips a third time on “The Hangover 2.”

And with “It’s Kind of a Funny Story,” he’s finally gotten to show off some serious acting chops.

But with all of that, he still manages to practice his first love — standup comedy — whenever possible.

“There’s not really conflict,” Galifianakis says. “I was a standup comic and I was doin’ my own thing and people weren’t asking me to be in movies, and then people were asking me to be in different stuff. I mean, I’ve had people tell me I’m a sellout and that kind of thing. I came from such an underground comedy scene for years, where you kind of did rebel against the system.

“I never did that but the comics around me did, and now they’re getting tons of Hollywood work too, so it’s funny how it worked out that way.”

Travel and accommodations provided by Focus Features.

Listed on wimgo Movies under Comedy drama

Common wisdom in Hollywood says that it’s the rare sequel that outshines the original. And in the case of the overstuffed, overly frenetic, slightly incoherent “Iron Man 2,” that wisdom holds fast and true.

If this hotly anticipated sequel to the 2008 Marvel Comics superhero saga proves anything, it’s that more is not always better. But that’s a cliché, as well as a very real pitfall that trips up many if not most big-bang, big-budget action movies that score big box-office bucks and come back a couple of years later for a second helping of riches.

The things that surprised and charmed us most about the first “Iron Man” – clever gizmos, clever characters, prize-worthy special effects and the willfully eccentric, darkly dangerous presence of Robert Downey Jr. in the title role – are back in spades for the sequel.

But so is an overly convoluted plot by actor-screenwriter Justin Theroux (“Tropic Thunder”) that confronts our gazillioinaire playboy industrialist-inventor Tony Stark (Downey, upping his game in terms of bleak, sardonic humor) with a rash of personal problems and a couple of potent arch-enemies on his case.

It’s hardly necessary to provide detailed synopsis, since this thing was practically blogged to death before it hit multiplex screens.

But, briefly, Stark, seemingly unhinged by creeping megalomania and a bad ticker, is still stubbornly guarding the secret of his nifty bionic iron suit and insisting that he’s using it for the good of mankind.

Amid a numbing barrage of explosive special effects, orchestrated without much apparent logic by returning director Jon Favreau, Stark struggles with his own inner nuttiness while fending off a genius Russian thug named Ivan Vanko (is that Mickey Rourke under all those tattoos?), who blames Stark for … oh, something or other. There’s also an underhanded weapons dealer with the appropriate weapons dealer name Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), who’s conniving with Vanko against Stark.

On top of that, the blustery U.S. Sen. Stern (Garry Shandling) is pressuring Stark to turn over his technology to the Defense Department; Stark’s loyal Girl Friday, Pepper Potts (Gwenyth Paltrow), now has a rival in a dishy new assistant, Natalie Rushman (Scarlett Johansson, scantily clad), and old comrade Col. James Rhodes (Don Cheadle, stepping in for Terrence Howard) feels that he needs to knock some sense into Stark’s muddled head.

That doesn’t even take into account the puzzling presence of Samuel L. Jackson’s eye-patched crimefighter Nick Fury, who shows up late and hangs around without much to do.

All the confusion and chaos of the story, or the over-reliance on noisy CGI action scenes, won’t likely spoil the fun for hardcore fans. Downey’s cheeky flamboyance and his knack for glib, dark humor provide enough saving grace to make “Iron Man 2” an ironclad blockbuster. It manages to be enjoyable, even while being a rattling contraption that’s far too mechanical for its own good.

- Dennis King

“Iron Man 2”

PG-13
2:04
2.5 stars
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson and Mickey Rourke
(Sequences of intense sci-fi action and violence, and some language.)

Russell Crowe

BY DENNIS KING

Traditionally, summer officially arrives at the dawning of Memorial Day weekend, this year on May 28th.

But by Hollywood’s unofficial calendar, summer always comes much earlier, usually while spring crocuses are still in bloom. The summer months constitute one of the movie business’s most lucrative seasons (along with the Christmas holidays), when each weekend is anchored by at least one big-budget, big-star, high-concept “tent pole” movie that casts a wide shadow across box offices nationwide.

So studios are shameless about fudging the start of the summer blockbuster season, which this year appears to begin on April 2.

That’s when “Clash of the Titans,” the first big summer action movie blasts its way into the nation’s multiplexes ahead of the competition.

Directed by Louis Leterrier (“The Incredible Hulk,” “Transporter 2”), this piece of cinematic Greek mythology features Sam Worthington as Perseus, born a god but raised as a man, who sets off on an epic battle with Ralph Fiennes’ evil Hades. Liam Neeson appears as the all-powerful Zeus. The thing comes with the promise of a 3-D version and a teen-friendly PG-13 rating.

Next, on April 30th, summer continues apace with a new and umpteenth incarnation of “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” with the cadaverous Jackie Earle Haley as disfigured serial killer Freddy Krueger.

Things start to heat up on May 7th with the hotly anticipated arrival of “Iron Man 2,” in which Robert Downey Jr. again dons the iron suit of the techno super-hero to face off against super-villains, including Whiplash, played by a guy who seems born to portray gnarly freaks, Mickey Rourke.

May 14 lets fly a straight-arrow re-imagining of the Sherwood Forest legend with “Robin Hood,” a version that is sure to be pumped up with pomp and testosterone, given that it stars Russell Crowe in full blockbuster, “Gladiator” rage.

Then, on May 21st, the summer prelude winds down with the opening of “Shrek Forever After,” the fourth and final adventure (not counting a Broadway detour) of the animated green ogre with the Scottish brogue. This time, Shrek clashes with the duplicitous Rumplestiltskin in a fable that threatens his happy existence in the land of Far Far Away. Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy and the rest of the voice cast are back to reprise their fairy tale roles.

Whew! Is summer over yet? Oh, yeah, that just takes us up to late May, and Memorial Day weekend, plus three months of feverish blockbuster jostling, are still ahead. Pass the popcorn, a large soda and two aspirin, please