You don’t need to go out for this “Date Night,” an only fitfully fun comedy-adventure starring two favorite TV clowns. You won’t miss much waiting a few weeks and saving yourself some money by staying home to rent it.
If you go
‘Date Night’
2 out of 5 Stars
Stars: Tina Fey, Steve Carell, Mark Wahlberg
Director: Shawn Levy
Rated PG-13 for sexual and crude content throughout, language, some violence and a drug reference.
Running Time: 88 minutes
Reportedly, Tina Fey and Steve Carell improvised heavily to improve the movie, about a suburban New Jersey couple in a rut who jump-start their marriage during a date night that devolves into danger in Manhattan. You only have to stay for the outtakes during the end credits to see how little the actors were able to depend on the underwritten screenplay by Josh Klausner for the best scenes. Director Shawn Levy (“Night at the Museum,” “Cheaper By the Dozen”) is known to rely on simple-minded action and sight gag banality for his farces, as he does here again. But the filmmaker does get credit for good casting. The appealing performances by the lead pair and a few droll cameos keep the otherwise unimpressive piece rolling.
The opening premise may hit home for many. What happens after you have kids, fall into a dull routine that revolves around them, lose your initial passion for each other and become merely “excellent roommates”?
It’s a great question the movie asks. But rather than answer it with the humor found through character development and recognizable situation, “Date Night” goes off the deep end into blackmail, Mafia and official corruption.
It’s a case of mistaken identity for accountant Phil and real estate agent Claire Foster (Carell and Fey). Two dirty cops (played by Common and Jimmi Simpson) think they are the extortionists who have the goods on the city’s shady district attorney (William Fichtner). A good cop (Taraji P. Henson) eventually believes that the Fosters are innocent victims. But they soon turn for help to a perennially shirtless, too-cool spy, Claire’s former client, played by a self-deprecating Mark Wahlberg. Ray Liotta also parodies his screen persona, portraying a perplexed organized crime boss.
But the most amusing setpiece features Mila Kunis and James Franco as the real extortionists. They are a young lowlife couple, bickering and probing their own relationship issues in the middle of the chaos, just like the yuppie Fosters.
Conjugal troubles transcend class, apparently. It would have been more imaginative to further explore the wit in an idea like that — without need of the artificiality of gunplay and car chases to attract an audience.
