Director: Shawn Levy
Running Time: 85 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 15
Genre: Comedy/Crime/Romance
UK Release Date: 21st April 2010
Watched on Sky+ Sunday 17th April 2010.
PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.
To be honest, I wasn’t going to watch this one as I’m not really a fan of comedies. They are generally stupid and labour the point they are trying to make so much that I can find them quite tedious. Fortunately this one wasn’t too bad, yes, there are parts you can see coming from about 50 miles away, but it’s saved by the performances of the two main characters. I’ll tell you more about that after this brief summary (summary haters, and those that don’t wish to know about the plot, please hide the evidence while I write the next paragraph).
Phil and Claire Foster are an average New Jersey couple and they are stuck in a bit of a rut. They have two kids, boring jobs and everything seems to be routine. Even date night has become a routine; they go to the same restaurant, eat the same food, talk about the same people, it’s all getting a bit predictable. One day they hear that their friends, another couple in a similar situation are about to separate. Desperate to not end up in the same situation, they decide to go into Manhattan to a posh restaurant for a nice meal. They arrive late and the place is fully booked, but they wait at the bar hoping for a cancellation. A waitress is looking for the Tripplehorn’s and can’t find them and so Phil and Claire claim to be them, just so they can get their dream date night. This proves to be a big mistake, the next thing they know two guys take them to the alley and ask them for a stolen flash drive. When they pull out guns the couple believe it’s serious. This is where the fun begins and this is where I’ll leave my summary. I don’t want the Spoiler Police after my flash drive.
Pretty decent performances all round, particularly from Steve Carell as Phil Foster and Tina Fey as Claire Foster. In the moments where they are just being a regular couple they are really good. The comedy stuff… well, I’ll leave that up to you. Mark Wahlberg does a nice job of acting without a shirt as Holbrooke Grant and Taraji P. Henson was also pretty good (with shirt) as Detective Arroyo. Honourable mentions go to; William Fichtner as DA Frank Crenshaw, Kristen Wiig as Haley Sullivan, Mark Ruffalo as Brad Sullivan, James Franco as Taste, Mila Kunis as Whippit and, last but not least, a great little cameo from Ray Liotta (uncredited) as mob boss Joe Miletto.
It’s a pretty well made film with some nice stunt work and a pretty good soundtrack. Again, The Ramones get an airing of their song ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’. A pretty enjoyable film that, although very predictable in places, I wasn’t too offended by. It won’t feature very high on my re-watch list, but it was OK… Recommended, if only for the rapport between Carell and Fey when they’re just being a couple.
My Score: 5.6/10
LINKS:
(RT = Rotten Tomatoes)
IMDb Page: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1279935/
RT Page: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/date_night/
Trailer:
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