Directed by Todd Phillips. Starring Robert Downey, Jr, Zach Galifianakis, Michelle Monaghan, Juliette Lewis, Jamie Foxx 15A cert, gen release, 94 min

AN UPTIGHT neurotic, desperate to get home to his beloved wife, is forced to journey cross-country with a coarse, overweight, somewhat lonely idiot. Deprived of access to air travel, they squabble in a tiny car, encounter difficulties with credit cards and ultimately come to a kind of grumpy understanding.

Sound familiar? Todd Phillips's follow-up to The Hangoveris virtually a remake of John Hughes's Planes, Trains and Automobiles. This time round, Robert Downey Jr, rigid with tension, takes on the Steve Martin role, while Zach Galifianakis, 14 going on 40, steps into John Candy's voluminous shoes.

It’s a classy piece of work – the actors work hard at creating fleshy characters and the production values are lavish. But is it funny enough?

Downey Jr stars as Peter, an architect who, as the film begins, sets out to travel from Atlanta to LA for the birth of his first child. Before the plane has left the airport, Peter finds himself in conflict with Ethan (Galifianakis), a bearded buffoon who seems incapable of keeping his bodily extremities and personal property out of the tidier man’s face. Both chaps are ejected from the plane and Peter is placed on Homeland Security’s “no-fly list”. Now missing his wallet and his luggage, he is forced to accept Ethan’s offer of a lift.

The actors certainly play well off one another. Complementary in virtually ever regard – girth, vocal timbre, overall hairiness – the architect and the aspiring actor come together to form one perfect, bifurcated mass of contrasting neuroses.

Due Datealso boasts some cracking lines. "That's Shakespeare. Do you know who that is?" Peter says patronisingly. "Yes I do," Ethan replies. "He was a pirate and it's Shakesbeard."

So why does it feel slightly hollow? Well, in the John Hughes film, the two characters, though madly flawed, were essentially nice guys at heart. We longed for them to become friends. By way of contrast, Peter is too nasty and Ethan too darn creepy for us to desire – or understand – any eventual reconciliation.

Due Dateis a decent film, but its bearings are ever so slightly misaligned.