DATE NIGHT - 8/10 (A-)

This is the perfect example of a movie working solely due to the actors. Tina Fey and Steve Carell are a comedic dream team. With anyone else in the roles this could have fallen flat, but their impeccable comedic timing and improvisational skills are too terrific to fail. It’s certainly not the script that makes “Date Night” such a hilarious and fun ride. So many of the jokes work due to their delivery and facial expressions. I could easily see most of these jokes falling flat on their faces in the hands of less gifted comedic actors. But Fey and Carell are a joy to watch. They play off each other perfectly. They have a great chemistry and are very believable as a married couple. As much as I love them, I did not expect to enjoy “Date Night” so much, or to laugh as much as I did. This will easily be one of the funniest comedies of the year. Maybe not “the best,” but funniest. This was just a great time at the movies.

It's a pretty solid comedy, mostly working off the chemistry of the two leads. But it's never really hilarious.

Maybe in the hands of a better director.

I felt like I was laughing the entire time. Really a fun film. Tina Fey and Steve Carrell have so many great lines. It doesn't try to take its cop storyline too seriously (Tina: "I am SO LOST!!"), which was good. And in the end it was actually a pretty heartfelt movie.

A-

I too felt like I was laughing the entire time. The strip club part during the end was HILARIOUS!!!! And like you mentioned, it was actually a pretty sweet movie. I had a hard time stifling an aww during the diner scene in the end.

Lots of fun and a satisfactory number of laughs. The chemistry between Steve Carell and Tina Fey is absolutely perfect. B+

James Franco's tattoo was amazing lol. My only complaint is that they should have gave Mark Wahlberg funnier stuff to do.

Phil (Steve Carell) and Claire Foster (Tina Fey) are a dedicated couple and loving parents, but their suburbanite existence has grown disheartening. She feels overburdened. He feels adrift and underutilized. During a romantic evening in Manhattan intended to refresh their relationship and after a series of misunderstandings and white lies, the Fosters find themselves in the center of a dangerous situation.

Will fleeing from gun-toting henchmen and engaging in elaborate espionage and intense car chases push the Fosters to new heights as individuals and as a couple and, in the end, reignite their romance? (I won't spoil the film, but yes.)

Carell and Fey are a dynamic duo. This film succeeds because of their charisma and unrivaled comic timing and improvisation. There is an alternate universe where Phil and Claire Foster are portrayed by Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz or Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon and Date Night is garbage.

Credit director Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian) and screenwriter Josh Klausner (Shrek the Third) for often staying out Carell and Fey's way. Note the scenes in which the Fosters point out and impersonate other diners in a restaurant; it's an open invitation for Carell and Fey to improvise and let hilarious observations and one-liners fly. Levy just lets the cameras roll and the actors deliver one-hundred-percent. Levy also stages a very exciting and unique car chase, though, in general, the film loses momentum when the emphasis is on the action and plot (a stolen flash drive, dirty cops) rather than Carell and Fey and their electrifying chemistry.

You may not remember Date Night in one month's time, but it is an enjoyable, well-crafted romp buoyed by perfectly cast stars. As far as disposable, mainstream comedy goes, it's fun and an easy recommendation.

B

Wahlberg did feel a bit squandered. He proved in I Heart Huckabees and The Departed he can be HILARIOUS and an electrifying presence. I was disappointed his character never went anywhere beyond the shirtless joke.

She didn't direct Mean Girls. She wrote it and Mark Waters directed it.

I would enjoy seeing Carell and Fey co-star again in a more substantial film. Still a comedy, of course, but more in the Allen/Jarmusch/Linklater vein than the Shawn Levy/writer-of-Shrek-the-Third vein.

It's positive on Rotten Tomatoes... No one is going to accuse Date Night of being 2010's most critically acclaimed film, but reviews haven't been bad.

I thought it was pretty disappointing. Despite having Tina Fey (who is a comic genius) and Steve Carell, I didn't laugh that much besides a few bits here and there.

6/10 (C+)

While having a very weak and fairly generic script to run with, Steve Carrell and Tina Fey make the most out of Date Night and make it a very fun outing. The film doesn't break any comedy barriers but it does have plenty of memorable moments to go along with it including a particular stripper scene involving Carrell and Fey. Hopefully the two will star together again in a film with an even better script than this and we could be in for a true comedy treat. If this is all we get though then that's fine. **1/2

I liked it a lot actually. Really helps that Carrell and Fey are played relatively straight. I mean they're still comedic, but within the realm of realism and believability. This made both the jokes funnier, the action stakes more intense, and the sentiment more believable. The opposite of this is something like Carrell/Hathaway in Get Smart where the characters were so goofball and trying for laughs phony that they weren't believable as people, and thus the film felt like a phony disaster.

I agree everything with Wahlberg falls flat. They didn't give him that much, but I think it's partly his fault too considering almost every other actor here kills it. Especially loved Franco's bit.

I've been a big Shawn Levy hater, but I have to compliment him here, this is by far and away his best work. Directs the actors beautifully, action and suspense scenes are done well, and I even liked the way the film looked. Bit more of a 'realism' tone to the camerawork rather than the standardcam feel of the NATM movies and Pink Panther. Again like making the leads play straight, this helped ground the over the top plot and helped make the story believable in a way.

Dunno, maybe Levy is getting his reps and becoming a pretty good director. I liked Night at the Museum 2 more than I expected, and really liked this one. Date Night feels much closer to being a legit a director's piece than NATM2 though. Maybe as time goes on and his name gets more established, they're letting him make more decisions, whereas in movies like Pink Panther and Night at the Museum the decisions were made outside of him

B

Tina Fey and Steve Carell make this movie.

Date Night = B
Knight and Day = B-
Day and Night = A

B-


All I have to say about this is: Screw yourself Shawn Levy! Once again, he has taken a great concept and a terrific cast and turned into a slightly above-mediocre piece of filmmaking. The same has already happened with Night at the Museum which had a terrific premise and all the potential to be another Ghostbusters, but never even came close to living up to it. Date Night is just another example of Levy just not being able to direct really good films. He's one of the bigger hacks working in Hollywood at the moment.

As I said, the set-up is quite classic (a couple mistaken for someone else is being chased throughout the city). But then again, it still offers itself up very well for a good action-comedy. The cast is terrific! I mean you've got Steve Carell, Tina Fey, James Franco, Mila Kunis, Mark Wahlberg, Ray Liotta, Taraji P. Henson, William Fichtner, Kristen Wiig and others. That's a top notch ensemble for a high-profile comedy like this one. But that's mostly what it remains - a high concept film that is severely lacking in execution and is just carried by its awesome cast. Fey and Carell work together perfectly and score most of the film's laughs, though I did like the brief appearances by Franco and Kunis (damn, that turned out to be a great year for both of them later on!). Mark Wahlberg is the one who is sorely wasted here with his performance just reduced to walking around shirtless all the time...I assume Shawn Levy thinks that if shown shirtless many times, Wahlberg becomes funnier as the time progresses - WRONG!

There are some entertaining moments (I liked the car chase) and it is certainly better than, say, Killers. But with all the huge potential it had, I am just sad that it was someone like Shawn Levy at the helm.

Sometimes I wish Dr. Lecter understood humor.

This is rather lame.

Date Night

Yeah, it's a funny movie. Surprisingly, both Tina Fey and Steve Carell were funny. Which is odd because I never usually laugh at women because they aren't funny, but she had some good lines too (although Carell was much funnier). Wahlberg was great too. Probably the first Carell movie that I actually laughed at, and thus, liked. I think that since Jim Carrey went all serious, the only funny US movies have starred, of all people, Mark Wahlberg. The Other Guys, Date Night, Ted.. it's not a coincidence.

James Franco was excellent. Common and Ray Liotta were terrible, though.

B

I agree. Women. What are they good for? About the only thing I can think of is suckin' my dick. Amiright bro?