Una noche fuera de serie

Some movies have great stories told compellingly through technical direction and craftsmanship. These films keep you interested even when nothing important to the story is actually happening on screen. However, some films rely solely on charm and chemistry between co-stars for success. Date Night is not the first film, it looks slick and vacant of anything worth watching except for it's two stars. As casting goes, Date Night does keep you interested with the excellent pairing of Fey and Carell as a married couple. While the script struggles to provide enough clever banter to satisfy, their chemistry and ad-libs are what keeps the film going. Marky Mark, William Fichtner, Mila Kunis and James Franco show up for some pretty funny cameos, while Ray Liotta looks like he stumbled off the set of whatever his last crappy movie was and didn't step out of character. Oh, and Kristen Wiig and Mark Ruffalo are in this for, maybe two minutes. See it if you need to see Fey and Carell together on the big screen, I did

The suburban tax lawyer Phil Foster (Steve Carell) and the real estate agent Claire Foster (Tina Fey) have a boring married life in New Jersey. In their routine, they have once a week the "date night", when they hire a baby-sitter for their children and they have dinner in the same restaurant. When their best friends decide to divorce because of their routine, Phil decides to surprise Claire and have dinner in the fancy restaurant Claw in Manhattan. However, they do not have reservation and is almost impossible to get a table; when Phil overhears the waitress calling Mr. and Mrs. Tripplehorn, he lies and gets their table. Sooner two men invite them to leave the restaurant with them and they believe the invitation is because they took the reservation of a couple that has not shown up. But they discover that the couple stole a flash memory from the powerful gangster Joe Miletto (Ray Liotta) and now they have a serious problem to resolve.

"Date Night" is a funny and entertaining film with a non-original storyline about a mistaken couple that works. Steve Carell and the beautiful Tina Fey are hilarious in the roles of the suburban couple that has a night of adventure for taking the reservation of another couple in a popular restaurant. I believe most of the couples married for a long time will easily understand the situation of Phil and Claire. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Uma Noite Fora de Série" ("An Outstanding Night")

I never was a fan of director Shawn Levy's films. Sure, "Big Fat Liar" and the 2006 version of "The Pink Panther" did get some memorable moments, but they weren't THAT re-watchable. A good, funny movie is something that you can remember for quite some time, and I had a hard time remembering something memorable from "Cheaper By The Dozen" and "Just Married". However Levy isn't a bad director, it's just that he needs one good funny movie to really hit it off. No, the two "Night At The Museum" movies don't count. This one does. "Date Night", thus far, is the best movie Levy's directed.

By taking two of the funniest comedians today and putting them in a movie tailor-made for them is somewhat like a blessing. "Date Night" is a romantic comedy, with a slight detour into the action thriller genre. But it still has many laughs, big hearty ones, especially from both Carell and Fey. You see, both of them play a bored married couple who decides to liven up their love life by going into a posh (and extremely snobbish/overbooked) restaurant in the Big Apple. So the loving husband, desperate to work things out, claims (or rather, steals) an unoccupied reservation so that their night together would be romantic and luxurious. Big mistake, as they are mistaken for someone else, which leads to a night of danger, intrigue and excitement.

The best thing about the movie are both Carell and Fey and how well both play each other off. Both have excellent chemistry and have memorable moments and lines. Steve Carell is perfect as the dead-pan husband Phil, while Tina Fey as Claire looks gorgeous and deliver her own brand of jazzy humor. A fine example of their chemistry together is a scene where both of them ad-libs many couples in the film. Great stuff. To quote an early Australian reviewer; "The two surprisingly "deliver the emotional reality of a couple even under comedic demands". I loved them in the movie and I hope they do more comedies together.

There are jokes throughout the movie, both physical and in dialog. A fine example of the physical humor in the film: a car chase that is intense as it is ridiculously funny; and what is arguably the most hilarious strip/pole- dance I've seen in any movie. That scene had me laughing so much, I now have to take cough syrup. There's some memorable lines here too: "You stole our reservation? What kind of people are you?"; "He turned the gun sideways. It's a killshot!" among others. To see these two comedians going through all this in a plot so hilariously Hitchcockian (the plot kinda reminds me of "North By Northwest") is a hoot.

Balancing the comedians out are some fine supporting actors; in fact you could call the cast an ensemble cast of sorts. Besides Carell and Fey, you've got Mark Wahlberg who looks hunky shirtless, to Phil's dismay; Oscar-nominee Taraji P. Henson as a detective trying to put the pieces together; Mila Kunis and James Franco in nearly scene-stealing scenes as a wild couple who enjoy their love life despite their rowdiness; Common and Jimmi Simpson as the two pursuers; William Fichtner in a hilarious yet sleazy performance; and a villainous role for (surprise) Ray Liotta.

In technical aspects, Shawn Levy's direction is brisk and fast-paced, and the cinematography and camera work, as always by Dean Semler, is nothing short of great. The editing is fluid and doesn't ruin the smooth flow of the movie. The script, though with some flaws, is still pretty well written. Yes I agree the movie is illogical and clichéd at some points but then again it's a light-hearted comedy at it's core and for that purpose it got the job done tremendously. Plus at only 90 minutes it's pretty much short and straightforward with it's pace, so that you get what you want. Comedic entertainment at it's finest.

So overall, this is a great romantic comedy to take both your friends and/or your other too. It's a very funny and enjoyable movie to watch. It's a jolly good time at the movies, and I'm glad I saw it. Hey, maybe I'll see it again if I had the chance. This one's a winner.

Overall rating: 7.5/10 (Very good, worth your time and money)

Predictable? Sure, this ain't a comedy that pretends to be more than a vehicle for the comedic abilities of the very likable Tina Fey and the sometimes over-the-top (but not so much in this movie) Steve Carrell.

Aside from the surprising cameos in this show, there aren't much surprises. This is one of those movies where there's a couple that's been in a somewhat fixed circle of boredom in their lives. Heck, even their regular date nights have been very predictable.

Steve and Tina are the Fosters; upon finding out that one of their closest couple friends are splitting up, they try to spice things up by having a date in the city. In a case of mistaken identity, their would-be date night winds up an action-filled, sometimes funny evening. Except for a few scenes, this movie isn't anything innovative; but it's still nice to see Steve and Tina play likable characters.

The producers of this flick know what they have in these two actors, and the movie is enough to give their comedic and acting chops (nothing like Steve's nice acting ability in Dan in Real Life) a little flexing. With this knowledge, I still recommend this movie to those who want to enjoy a little break from the action-3D-filled movies out there now. A little date with your significant other watching this movie would be good.

The director Shawn Levy sadly doesn't inspire a lot of enthusiasm going into one of his movies. At best he's competent at what he does, and some years back made a halfway clever and original 'movie'-comedy (Big Fat Liar), but mostly has kept to Fox studio commercialism like Cheaper by the Dozen and the Night at the Museum movies. And yet, he (or just the studio) must have had the insight to put together two of the funniest people working right now- not to mention with shows back-to-back on Thursday nights on NBC- Steve Carrel and Tina Fey, because they help elevate anyone's work by a longshot. This isn't to say that Josh Klausner's script may not have some laughs, but where exactly I can't be sure, since most of his contributions would appear to come from the super-conventional story aspects (as my own mother put it, "I don't know, looks like The Out of Towners, or that Blind Date movie from the 80's").

So yeah, basic premise, married couple looking for a little change (their friends are splitting up), go out to 'The City' (NYC of course) and to a very nice restaurant. In a move that could come out of a Seinfeld episode, they can't get a reservation so Carrel overhears a waitress calling for someone else for a reservation and he decides they should take it since they're no-shows. The "Tripplehorns", as it turns out, have some shady dealings with some bad dues with guns, and so the Fosters, our confused heroes, go on the run in the city. Whenever the movie focuses on the core plot of all of this, it's by the numbers stuff, save for a climax that ratchets up the absurdity of everyone involved (including good actors playing decent-to-mediocre baddies like William Fichtner and Ray Liotta).

It's when Fey and Carrel are allowed to play loose with the script that it strikes the iron. Their timing is impeccable, and they have chemistry together, which is crucial. And when they come across some other supporting characters, like Mark Wahlberg's (VERY) shirtless ex-military guy with all of his high-tech equipment, or the "real" Tripplehorns played by James Franco and Mila Kunis, there's further hilarity that ensues from the interactions and precise timing. That's all you need sometimes in a comedy that's based in formula, is two character to at least semi care about (and, perhaps more wisely than a Hollywood rom-com can be given credit for, it has painfully normal characters here, nothing too complicated), and who are funny in semi-funny situations. Even a ridiculous car chase where the Fosters hit a cab and the two are connected bumper to bumper through the streets is funny just because of the acting. Given the right mood and timing they could read a census report and get a few chuckles from the pauses and inflections.

So, if you're looking for something masterfully done, look elsewhere. If you just want to see two stars who are funny be funny almost despite some of the limitations in the script, Date Night deserves a chance. At the least you get to see the two show off their "skills" in a strip-club scene, and, did I mention Mark Whalberg doesn't have on a shirt?