Comedic duo brings big laughs to ‘Night’

Monday, April 12, 2010 - 10:17 PM

In “Date Night,” a New York City couple’s date goes awry when a case of mistaken identity happens, which in turn livens up the usually boring couple’s night. Photo courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox.

Several movies coming out this year feature all-star comedy casts bound to make audiences’ eyes stream with tears of laughter. However, very few of these dynamic comedic teams will be able to measure up to the quite good on-screen pairing of Tina Fey (“Baby Mama”) and Steve Carell (“Get Smart”) in the movie “Date Night,” which hit theaters last week.

Carell and Fey play Phil and Claire Foster, a 40-something married couple looking to spice up their humdrum routine. When Claire hears about a fancy new seafood restaurant in Manhattan, Phil is determined to abandon their usual date night steakhouse and treat his wife to a night out on the town, despite the fact that they don’t have a reservation. After being snubbed by the stuck-up host, Phil and Claire decide to take someone else’s reservation, which leads to a case of mistaken identity when a couple of dirty cops think the couple have something a local thug is after.

Realizing they are not the ones the criminals are after, Phil and Claire decide to find the real thieves and recover the stolen flash drive. They enlist the help of Holbrooke Glenn (Mark Wahlberg, “The Lovely Bones”), a mysterious ex-client of Claire’s who has an apparent inability to put on a shirt.

Eventually they find the flash drive, which they discover contains incriminating pictures of the district attorney. Phil hatches a plan to get them out of trouble which culminates in a hilarious pole-dancing number and a police standoff.

Although the last couple of action comedies I saw ended up being total train wrecks, “Date Night” pulls off the genre well, employing a great amount of comedy, but not so much as to make the plot points unbelievable. Carell and Fey showed their skills by transitioning from great comedy bits one minute to showing fear in the face of danger in the next, with nothing but seamless transitions. I can honestly say their half-baked plans completely kept me guessing.

The casting of this movie couldn’t have been better. Steve Carell and Tina Fey were the ultimate comedy power couple, and their banter throughout the film had the entire audience in stitches. Leighton Meester, seen only a few times in the film played a great bratty babysitter, and James Franco (“Pineapple Express”) and Mila Kunis (“Forgetting Sarah Marshall”) as the bickering couple Taste and Whippit were absolutely hilarious, too.

‘Date Night’

Release Date: April 9

Director: Shawn Levy

Starring: Tina Fey, Steve Carell, Mark Wahlberg, Leighton Meester

Genre: Action/Comedy/Romance

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

Grade: B+