Date Night
DATE NIGHT: A DUD
Date Night is an inspired pairing between Steve Carell and Tina Fey. It is about a married couple who tries to innocently break out of a rut and ends up getting into all kinds of trouble. Mark Wahlberg is sexy as an ex-client of Fey's character who helps them out. But all of it is for not because the material is just unfunny.
Phil (Steve Carell) and Claire(Tina Fey) Foster live in New Jersey with their two kids. Phil is an insurance salesman while Claire is a real estate agent. Both are perfectly comfortable with their lives until a couple friend of theirs decide to get divorced. Phil decides to treat his wife out for a night in the city. He takes her to the most upscale restaurant and attempts to get a table. When they are denied, they take somebody else's reservations. When two gentlemen approach their table and tell them to get up and go outside, they assume they are being kicked out . But when they get outside, one of them pulls a gun on them. This puts them in a situation that just gets harder and harder to get out of . They spend the rest of the night trying to find the mysterious people whose identities they have assumed and get back home.
The story should be just a jumping off point for Fey and Carell. Both are extremely gifted comedic actors. But the movie is just a continuous run of gags that become more and more annoying. The plot is weak and filled with cliches, such as crooked politicians and cops. Even Mark Wahlberg as a shirtless security expert wears thin after a while. Fey and Carell are genius with their respective shows, 30 Rock and The Office. But even the most talented actor/actress needs good material to work with. They have been interviewed saying that director Shawn Levy would shout things at them while rolling film for them to try. Like it was just an improvisational sketch that they were doing. But this isn't Saturday Night Live. And poor Ray Liotta. He seems to be only doing bad imitations of his Good Fellas character over and over again. And most irritating of all is James Franco and Mila Kunis as the couple that Phil and Claire try to impersonate at the restaurant. Their whole scene is like nails on a chalkboard. Date Night was filmed in Pasadena, California. So not even the bright lights of New York City can be seen as real.
Just because you have the talent doesn't mean you get lazy with the writing.
Date Night had the potential to be comedy genius with stars Steve Carell and Tina Fey. But apparently the whole budget went to them and none to the writing. The majority of the jokes fall flat and the ones that do work get run into the ground. It is disappointing to see stars of their caliber performing such mediocre material.
Report Card:
Story-C-
Acting-C+
Visuals-D
Originality/Innovation-C-
Enjoyability Grade–D
Overall Grade-C-
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