Movie Review: Date Night

Title: Date Night
Director: Shawn Levy
Rating: 2 Stars

My wife and I decided to go see a movie the other night and checking the listing it fell between to comedies: Date Night and Hot Tub Time Machine, directed by Shawn Levy and starring Steve Carrell and Tina Fey.  I diplomatically suggested Date Night, despite low expectations, since I thought my wife wasn't in the mood for the surely raunchy and low-brow Hot Tub Time Machine.  But I felt like it kinda looked like Get Smart  -- another movie that didn't look great but turned out decent.  Oops.  I didn't like this movie a whole lot, and I think I'm probably being generous when I give it 2 stars.

I like Steve Carrell a lot, for the most part.  In fact, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, is one of my favorite comedies since Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  I'm supposed to like Tina Fey, I think, but I don't really.  Thought she was weak on SNL for years and never got into 30 Rock-- which is supposed to be funny.  I can't even get the "she's hot because she doesn't look Hollywood" thing going for whatever reason.  That being said, both turn in fine but unremarkable performances in this clunker of a movie.

Plotwise the movie was ho-hum.  I kinda like the way it started off with a married couple struggling to find time to appreciate each other outside of the mundane daily tasks involved with keeping their kids on the right track.  They introduce a sweet characterization device that I enjoyed: Steve and Tina point out other couples and then create conversation for them.  It was pretty funny and helped the audience see what brought the two characters together in the first place.  The movie really "gets going" when they steal someone's reservation and it turns out the stolen reservation belongs to another couple in trouble with the law.  Two hitmen arrive and hilarity is supposed to ensue (it doesn't). 

The movie really just didn't have any great jokes.  That's bad for a comedy.  I'll admit I laughed a couple of times... The first scene involving a mostly naked Marky Mark Wahlberg was kinda funny. And there was another thing very late in the film that amused me.  But, basically, the jokes missed enough that I don't think I even noticed they were supposed to be jokes (I expect better out of Steve Carrell, frankly).  If I'd have done some research, I'd've seen this coming.  It appears that Shawn Levy's purpose in life is to create mediocre-to-bad comedies.  He's responsible for such disasters as Cheaper By the Dozen and Night at the Museum.  He also made The Pink Panther, a movie I know to be bad but like for non-movie reasons. 

Anyway, I can't really recommend this movie unless you're really hard up.  It's as bad as I thought it was going to be.  I didn't really want to cut myself or go on a murderous rampage while I was watching it, but when it was all over with I felt I'd wasted my time.

(2 stars)