Despite the near-universal panning of Date Night, I pretty much had to go see it, because of my very great love for Tina Fey. And the thing is, it’s honestly not all that bad. But it is barely north of mediocre, which fails in every way to match the talent involved. (I include Marky Mark in this assessment, as undoubtedly do you.) I expect its flaws were highlighted by the conditions in which I saw it, those being a completely empty theater yesterday afternoon. Inherent irony of that venue aside, I really think it needed the crutch of other people laughing aloud at things I only found amusing.
So, anyway, there’s this married couple, and they are in exactly the kind of couple-rut that has spawned so many movies in which the woman empowers herself by finding someone who is more attractive, more stylish, smarter and more funny but for whom she inexplicably didn’t look in the first place, in favor of screwing over a perfectly decent but not movie-quality husband-or-boyfriend that never did anything wrong except for failing to create the fairy tale she was expecting, and has now finally found.[1] Thankfully, this is the rarer movie that shows them trying to struggle past that and rediscover each other, actually admitting that there was a reason they were together in the first place. They break out of this rut by, you guessed it, taking over the reservation of a missing party at a swank Manhattan dinner spot, and thereby accidentally getting tangled up in a case of mistaken identity involving secret information on a flash drive, hired guns, a mafia boss, and Mark Wahlberg’s pecs. (Possibly his abs as well.) Which sounds like a perfectly serviceable zany action/comedy, except that for some reason it just wasn’t funny the way you’d expect that to be. Script problems are an inevitable aspect, and the credits make it clear that the funniest scenes were adlibbed multiple ways by Ms. Fey and Steve Carell anyhow. But I also kind of figure that they tried too hard to be both a good romantic comedy and a good action comedy, and neither element came out as well as they might have if it had been a single-genre flick.
Maybe next time! I’m pretty sure chemistry was not the issue, so letting them try again would be worthwhile.
[1] …what’s your point?
I found it hilarious. Maybe it was the company. Maybe it hit just close enough to home to endear and not so close as to haunt.
I actually found it thoroughly enjoyable, too—it was endearing, there definitely was chemistry, and adlibbing worked. A few of the action gags were funny, some dialogue was very funny, and Harry Osborne (can’t remember his real name, sorry) was obviously having so much fun chewing the scenery that I cannot be grudging.
I agree about the endearing, all around. And generally speaking, I am pleased to see it getting better reviews than the ones I’d previously heard *or* mine, ’cause, y’know, I actually do want people to enjoy Tina Fey. As she is 100% awesome.
P.S. The Harry Osborne / apartment scene was I think my favorite of the movie, all around. Good stuff!