Date Movie

Today, I checked out the new comedy starring Steve Carell and Tina Fey, Date Night. It was definitely one of those movies where I hoped it would be as funny as it looked in the trailers, and that not all the best parts had been spoiled there. It was a case where it looked all too conventional in its storyline, but hopefully the stars would add something extra.

Indeed, it was a conventional plot, cobbled together from a few other movies you've probably all seen before. A married couple is mistaken for two people holding information over the head of a dangerous mobster, whose goons are trying to have our unlikely (and unlucky) heroes killed. Hilarity ensues.

And actually, it does. Steve Carell and Tina Fey both create a lot of great moments in this movie. The entire thing just has the sense of fun about it; you can tell (even before seeing the outtakes that run over the end credits) that everyone had a lot of fun making this movie. Carell plays less dumb than he does on The Office, and Fey less smart than she does on 30 Rock -- but the two meet in the middle and create a lot of laughs.

The supporting cast is also quite entertaining, including normally oh-so-serious Mark Wahlberg and William Fichtner. In a string of near-cameo appearances, there's also Ray Liotta, James Franco, Mila Kunis, Mark Ruffalo, and Kristen Wiig. Again, you just get the sense they're cutting loose and having fun.

If anything, the story is so wafer thin that you almost wish even less attention had been paid to it. There are a few action sequences better suited to a madcap buddy cop movie than a film like this, purely there to advance the plot, I think. Still, Date Night does generate laughs when it stops trying to be an action movie too. Overall, I'd rate it a B.