The first 15 minutes of Due Date

Yeah, that was as much of that movie as I’ve seen.  And it was enough.  I was at my friend’s place the other day and we were trying to pick a movie to watch from a somewhat crappy selection that was available to us.  We hadn’t seen Due Date so we thought alright, let’s give that a try.  We like Robert Downey Jr. and Zack Galifianakis was good in The Hangover, so how bad could it be?

Bad enough that we opted for a different movie after 15 minutes.  Okay, maybe bad isn’t the right word.  But we just didn’t feel like watching anymore of it at that point in time.  The thing is Zack Galifianakis’ character was just so annoying.  I mean I guess he was annoying in The Hangover as well, but not to this extent maybe?  I don’t know, The Hangover was a good movie.  His character in that definitely messed up big time, but for whatever reason, he was still likable.

In Due Date, there was just no liking him at all.  Within the first ten minutes of the movie, he’s already screwed up a lot in Robert Downey Jr’s life.  And you know that that’s just the beginning.  And you’re thinking, how could he possibly make things worse for him?  Do I really want to know?  And we didn’t.  Which is odd cause usually once I start things, I like to finish them.  But we’d seen little enough of the movie that we weren’t completely invested, and were still able to turn away from it and never look back.

Sometimes you’re just not in the mood for a movie in which everything goes wrong, all because of one stupid individual.  This seemed like it was one of those movies.  Why is it so upsetting when this happens?  You know it’s only a movie.  You know Robert Downey Jr’s life isn’t actually ruined.  So what’s the problem?  Why not just stay along for the ride that is a series of unfortunate events happening to a fictional character?

I guess it’s the same reason that sad movies make some people cry, and the reason that we like happy endings.  For whatever reason, we become emotionally invested in movies. Perhaps because we can relate to the characters?  Maybe the story lines somehow remind us of our own lives at times?

For me personally, one of the reasons these types of movies bother me might be because I relate and really feel for the character who’s life is screwed up due to the stupidity of another person.  I can definitely recall times in my life when things have gone wrong and were completely out of my control because of someone else.  I don’t like to blame other people.  Well okay, that’s not completely true.  I mean I do take ownership for things that are my fault, but often times we are justified in putting at least some blame on others as well.  But then, you could blame yourself for choosing to associate with stupid individuals.  But then we don’t always know and we don’t always have a choice.

It’s just all the more upsetting when someone else screws things up for you and you can’t do anything about it.  I just didn’t feel like investing my time in watching that happen, even if it was only a movie.  Perhaps I’m being unreasonable and the rest of Due Date is actually fantastic and I’m totally missing out?  Who knows?  I guess the people who’ve seen the movie in it’s entirety would know.  Maybe I’ll give it another try some point in the future, at a point in my life where everything’s going well and there’s no chance of any stupid people screwing things up for me.  Although I don’t think that point actually exists in anyone’s life.  Oh well, I guess I’ll never watch it then.