Date Night (Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Mark Wahlberg, Taraji P. Henson) – I don’t know where to stop heaping praise on Date Night, director Shawn Levy’s hysterifest starring Second City veterans Steve Carell and Tina Fey, two of the funniest people on TV (30 Rock, Saturday Night Live, The Office) and in the movies. First, I love comedies with cameos, and this one has loads of them, including appearances from Mark Ruffalo, SNL’s Kristen Wiig, Mila Kunis, James Franco and Ray Liotta. None of them is named in the opening credits but most make the closing credits. Incidentally, the kiss over the closing credits and the outtakes (don’t leave until the very end) are the cherry on the top of this sundae.
The stars play Phil and Claire Foster, your basic New Jersey suburban couple who both work and love their kids. They come home each night tired but find the energy to play with the kids. This is like so many couples who are totally comfortable with each other even if the romance is largely gone. They regularly go out on “date nights,” almost always to the same restaurant. But one night, they decide to go into The City (New York, of course) for a special dinner. Here, the merry mix-ups occur (after all, we need a plot to house the hilarity). They “steal” the reservation of another couple, The Tripplehorns, to an exclusive restaurant that requires reservations a month in advance. Things go wrong then, and they find themselves being chased by a couple of bad guys. That’s when the action begins in sequences that look a little like Carell’s last film, the remake of Get Smart. Next, we get to see Mark Wahlberg in an extended cameo in which he never wears a shirt, which drives both Claire and Phil crazy. The film begins to fall apart here as we meet the real Tripplehorns, endure the obligatory chase scene (it’s funny but pretty stupid), and gunfire rains down on the streets of the Big Apple.
Levy redeems the movie by keeping the scenes light and breezy while the stars make you smile. They clearly had a great time making this movie, and it shows. The film never takes itself seriously, and the audience never stops smiling and laughing. There are so many throwaway lines that you can’t help but laugh. And each of the cameo turns is fun and made we wonder what was next. Date Night proves again that good comedies don’t require banalities and grossness. They need good writing, great pacing, and leads with great timing and likable personalities. Date Night has it all. Don’t miss it.