Monday, August 16, 2010

Date Night (2001) ****

Date Night celebrates one of those time honored traditions of any marriage, the one night of the week where the kids get ditched and mom and dad go out on the town which usually includes dinner at a chain restaurant, a crappy movie, and possibly a trip to Wal Mart in the wee hours of the morning. Phil and Claire Foster (Steve Carell and Tina Fey) are one of these couples in a marriage that has become the "P" word- predictable. Seeing their friends slipping into divorce they worry that the same fate awaits them. There has to be more of a spark than going to the Sizzler. So they leave the suburban droll and go into the city for this particular Date Night. They go to the stereotypical trendy restaurant without a reservation and stereotypically, they are brushed off by the creep at the front door. So they do something that suburbanites shouldn't do because it's bad- they take the reservation of a couple that have no showed. The Fosters are now the Tripplehorns. Time to eat.

Of course their night isn't going to go as easy as that. No, no, no. The Tripplehorn's have been blackmailing a big crime lord (Ray Liotta). Crime bosses don't like to be blackmailed so his two henchmen (Common and Jimmi Simpson) arrive to encourage the "Tripplehorn's" to either pony up the goods or drop dead. And tonight playing the Tripplehorns is Phil and Claire Foster. 

With a title like Date Night the first thing that pops into your mind is romantic comedy. Date Night really isn't a rom-com. It's a witty film that has great moments and isn't too sappy or too raunchy. It balances a middle ground that isn't seen to much anymore- a simple comedy where people get into extraordinary circumstances and the comical path they take to resolution without resorting to an overload of drama or an overload of poop jokes. The stars have great chemistry and Mark Wahlberg turns an entire film into a MacConaughey scene and creating a running joke throughout the film about being topless. Date Night is an overall crowd pleaser.

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