Review: Date Night

Right now Tina Fey and Steve Carrell are possibly the two biggest stars of the American sitcoms she in her self-penned hit 30 Rock and he as Michael Scott the boss in the American version of The Office. However, both of those shows are aired on digital channels and therefore people have to seek them out or miss them alltogether. Therefore, Carell is probably best known over here for his roles in Anchorman, 40 Year Old Virgin and Get Smart and Fey as the teacher in Mean Girls, which she also wrote. Both will also probably now be known for this film in which they play a married couple with two young children whose life has grown stale. They no longer have as much fun as they did or fool around as much as they did. The only thing they do now is attend a boring book club meeting and go on a weekly date night on which they always go to the same restaurant and order the same thing. One Date Night, they decide to go to the city but when they haven't got a reservation for a table they steal someone elses and end up getting caught up in the lives of the Tripplehorns who have been involved in blackmailing some important people. From there the film changes tack from an obsverational comedy into a full on action-comedy with high-tech gadgets, car chases and seedy nightclubs.

Fans of Steve Carell's film work won't be disappointed with his performance here as he does the same everyman character forced out of his comfort zone who ends up shouting a lot. However, fans of both actors TV work might not enjoy the humour here too much which ends up being incredibly broad towards the end of the film. Fey and Carell do share a good on-screen chemistry and it is easy to believe that they have bene married for a long time and that their relationship is becoming stale. The early scenes have some nice observations especially at the book club meeting and on the first date night that we see. However the later scenes often pack in generic sequences and feature a lot of very one-dimensional characters especially the African-American taxi driver and the corrupt cops. There are some nice supporting performances however notably from Mark Walhberg as a high-tech expert and former client of Fey's who assists the couple with their mission and never wears a shirt. Mila Kunis and James Franco put in a nice performance as the Tripplehorns with Franco portraying a character similar to the one in The Pineapple Express and I also enjoyed Ray Liotta and William Fitchner's fleeting appearances especially the latter as the broom-obssessed and very perveted D.A.

Overall I think this is a big crowd-pleaser, I found myself laughing a lot throughout and that's mainly down to the performances of Carell and especially Fey. At times the scenarios that the Fosters find themselves are a little far-fetched and if you go into the plot in detail there are a couple of big questions but overall this is a nice little film. Its odd to think that this film has been given a 15 certificate in the U.K., apparently for a reference to Nitrous Oxide which went completely over my head, as both director Shaun Levy and screenwriter Josh Klausner are more used to family films the former with the Night at the Museum films and Cheaper by the Dozen and the latter with the third Shrek film. This one is definitely a popcorn flick but one with added heart thanks to its two principal leads giving it all they have.