Date Night Review

Date Night Review

Date Night is trying to give you a comedy set full throttle in one nights events, Directed by Shawn Levy (Night At The Museum, Night At The Museum 2) i assumed it would have the pace down well as Levy is good at the 24 hour period comedies. Being written by Josh Klausner (Shrek Forever After) i was so sure if this would hold to joke, as the movie seemed targeted half at an older married audience and then at teens as well.

Steve Carell (40 Year Old Virgin) stars as middle class average family man Phil Foster alongside Tina Fey (The Invention Of Lying) his wife, Claire Foster. They have a Date Night a time for them to go out and just enjoy each other company but when the Fosters take the table of a no show couple, they get involved in a case of mistaken identity and there night evolves into a lot of events involving crooked cops, cabbie drivers, underworld crooks and more.

The plot takes a while to get into working, the first half of the movie seems to have more of the comedy for married couples, especially one scene where Carell asks Fey if they want to have sex tonight. The second half (once it gets there) takes of on the thrill ride, with everything from gun shootouts to car chase scenes. The overall plot of mistaken identity is to un-believable so it makes the movie run smoother.

Carell and Fey work well as an on screen couple, i could believe they were married in real life.
James Franco (Pineapple Express) and Mila Kunis (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) share one of the funnier scenes where the Fosters catch up to the peoples table they took. William Fichtner (The Dark Knight) plays one of the more freaky but funny roles, but does so well. I enjoyed the cast and there's a lot of big time actors in here in small parts that do well. Mark Wahlberg gets to enjoy a simple dry comedy role that simply involved him having his shirt of the whole movie, but I'm sure he enjoyed the bank check.

This is another movie where i couldn't get my head around the style they were going for when shooting it, some scenes have that dry realistic look, while other have your plain old Hollywood look. I proffered the look and feel of the first of the two options, it dragged you more into this one night affair where as the latter made you think another Hollywood comedy.

Date Night is enjoyable and a fun movie for the Saturday night, i laughed out loud on more than one occasion but it was a pity there was such a big gap between the funny jokes and the not funny ones.

Acting: 7

Writing: 7

Direction: 6.5

Production: 6.5

Overall 7.0