Deadline

After delivering the most successful comedy of the year with "Hangover" in 2009, director Todd Phillips now follows up with "Deadline". Zach Galifianakis, the secret star of "Hangover", gets to get on Robert Downey Jr.'s nerves in this wacky road movie - much to the delight of the audience.

Peter Highman (Downey Jr.) can't get home fast enough, after all, his wife (Michelle Monaghan) is about to give birth to his first child. But then wannabe actor Ethan Tremblay (Galifianakis) crosses Peter's path and turns his trip home into a real disaster. Not only does Ethan cause Peter to get kicked off the plane and find himself without luggage or money, but now the father-to-be has to drive across the country in a rental car with the pushy Ethan in order to make it home in time. But this road trip has quite a few surprises in store for the irascible Peter...

The parallels to "Ticket for Two" by John Hughes are unmistakable. True, the comedy by Todd Phillips, who again makes a small guest appearance as he does in each of his films, doesn't quite have the charm that fun with Steve Martin and John Candy could unleash. But even so, his "date" has become more than a mere rip-off. That's primarily thanks to the two leads. While Zack Galifianakis is actually just playing a slightly altered version of his character from "Hangover", which should definitely please fans of that comedy, Robert Downey Jr. plays the absolute antithesis of it in his own unique way. It's not that Ethan is the wacky character and Peter comes across as completely normal. Rather, they are both dysfunctional people who each have problems in their own way finding their way in our society.

The clash of the two mismatched men and the resulting consequences are good for plenty of laughs. Breakneck chases with the Mexican police, accidents, drug trips and plenty of arguments provide the viewer with plenty of laughs. However, the really big laughs like in "Hangover" are not to be found this time. Rather, the film animates again and again to the amused giggle and can almost in every minute at least once a broad grin in the faces of the audience conjure, the somewhat rougher US comedies are not averse.

Men who just can not or will not grow up, are especially in recent years always good for successful US comedy. And also in "Stichtag" the proven recipe works again very well. So the bottom line is that the comedy truly does not break new ground, but thanks to the very good lead actors and the good comedic chemistry between them offers enough reasons to go on this amusing road trip. Worth seeing

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp