Date Night

I saw a trailer claiming Date Night as the funniest movie this year, and while that sort of claim is often made to lure unsuspecting movie-goers into the theaters, I honestly believed it could be true this time around. This is Steve Carell and Tina Fey we’re dealing with, after all.

They’re the stuff of comedy-duo dreams, responsible for such gems as The 40 Year Old Virgin and Mean Girls; they boast starring roles on two of TV's most highly regarded comedies; they might easily be considered among the greatest of breakout stars from their career-launching programs (The Daily Show and Saturday Night Live).

But my praise ends there. Most unfortunately, I have awfully little good to say about this film. My expectations were high, I admit, but even still, had they been lower, my disappointment would still have been profound.

The movie tells the story of Phil and Claire Foster, a boring married couple from New Jersey who head into the big city for an evening out in hopes of breathing new life into their relationship. It is there that they stumble into some serious trouble after a case of mistaken identity involves them with criminals, crooked cops and a corrupt political figure.

The jokes are there, and I could recognize them without a problem-- I was aware when something was meant to be funny. And the jokes would have been funny had the timing or the delivery or some combination of the two been tweaked even a little.

The action and suspense take over far too much at various points, and the sappy, revive-our-marriage-before-it-fails moments are so saccharine it hurts. Both get in the way of the comedy. Very few of the jokes truly hit and even fewer actually made me laugh out loud.

It's tough to think poorly of Carell or Fey. I stand by their brilliance as comedians, but with their recent cinematic ventures in mind-- let us not forget Get Smart or Baby Mama-- perhaps I should not have been surprised by the sub par outcome of Date Night.

The movie's most outstanding features include its numerous supporting performers: Mark Wahlberg, James Franco, Mila Kunis, Ray Liotta, Common, etc. Each of them delivers what could be the best pieces of the entire movie.

Delightful supporting characters, however, do not a good movie make.

Aside from them, the sight of Tina Fey looking foxy in a bustier and one fabulous shot involving a helicopter, the best part of the entire thing was the blooper reel. And that's saying something.