Flicks-a-saurus Rex

Date Night

Director: Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum 1 and 2)

Starring: Tina Fey and Steve Carell, with Common, Mark Whalberg, Ray Liotta, and Mark Ruffalo

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for sexual and crude content throughout, language, some violence and a drug reference

The perfect date night flick, “Date Night” is an uproarious comedy that pairs off the two funniest people in the entertainment industry today. Tina Fey and Steve Carell are a riot! “Date Night” is a funny as the trailer, and while a lot of the best scenes are in the preview there is still more to behold in the film. If you laughed at all when you saw the ads for this movie then you might as well check out the new dynamic comedic duo found in “Date Night.”




This movie pales in comparison to Oscar Nominated “It’s Complicated” but I guess it is not quite in the same genre. Similar films might be “Baby Mama” or “Stranger Than Fiction” or other movies banking on SNL like scripts. However this movie is not nearly as filthy as “Step Brothers” or even “Talladega Nights” or a farfetched as “Zoolander” though it does seem to be in the same movie family.
I like movies with dynamic couples. I like movies about married people with married problems who try to make things work and in the course of the film resolve some of their conflicts. This is one of those movies. Phil (Steve Carell) and Claire (Tina Fey) Foster are in a little bit of a rut. They go to work every day, work hard, take care of the kids, get to bed late after putting the kids to bed, and are roused from their comas early each morning by WWF movie from their two children and they even go to the same restaurant for their weekly dates.



However they are in love, just resigned to the mundane duties of married life. They still play a little game during their dinners, it is obvious this is a long standing tradition between the couple, where they guess what date the couples around them are on and pretend to talk for these people. This is when the comical genius of these Golden Globe winning actors really comes out, the banter little dialogues back and forth, each comment getting more absurd. It is a hoot to watch. But one night changes their marriage for the better when they take another couples reservation and end up running from the mob in a case of mistaken identity.

Carell and Fey have great onscreen chemistry. They do not overpower each other like some actor heavy movies. They play off of each other very well, trading humorous lines, each funnier than the last. They banter a little bit, but they feel like a genuine couple that has gotten used to being together and, while there are still bumps in the marriage, they are a happy couple. It is easy to believe they are a normal suburban couple in a very abnormal situation that could happen to anyone committing the heinous sin of taking someone’s dinner reservation (a running joke throughout).

"Date Night" had a good story development. It was well thought out and paced at a good speed so as to not dump the audience head over heels into the classic mistaken identity plot. In fact the film was well thought out right up until the last fifteen minutes, which were a huge let down in comparison to the rest of the movie.



We got very little sense of a climax, and completely failed to use Mark Wahlberg’s supreme butt kicking abilities. Instead it kind of wrapped things up in one fell swoop as if the writer (Josh Klausner, the not so genius behind scripts for Shrek 3 and 4) was like, “Dang, we use our one “F”-word, and our allotment for jokes; I guess we are done with the movie,” and left the director with his thumb up his nose for the end of the film. This thoroughly disappointing ending really knocked the film down from an 8.3 out of 10 to a low 7.0 out of 10. The movie was clever and fun, not amazing, but well done, right up until a bogus ending that really killed the light, amusing mood of “Date Night.”



Sex/Nudity – 6 out of 10 – There is an extended scene in a strip club; a lot of women in lingerie dance suggestively on poles. A man women couple goofily dance for another man and he becomes very excited at their dancing, and asks them how much to spend the night with them. There is no nudity at all. There is some sexual dialogue including discussions about sexual fantasies. A woman asks if another couple will be joiner her for sex.

Violence/Gore 4 out of 10 – There are a few small gun fights, no one is shot though. There is a long car chase with some crashing, no one is injured. A few people get hit in the head or punched, no blood of any kind.

Profanity – 6 out of 10 – one very loud “F” word, kind of unexpected, sexual references, use of the “S” word and “B” word a few times, and some mild obscenities and religious exclamations.