Date Night

Banter and Bullets

[Tina Fey, Steve Carrell, Mark Wahlberg]

Have you ever gone to the movies by yourself when you really should have gone with someone else, be it a child to a kid flick or a date for a chick flick? I do it al the time! I love movies so much, I would have gone to "How to Train your Dragon" by myself. Luckily, in that case, I had  a roommate and friends with a son with me. My advise -  as long as you are not "creepy", going to movies solo should not be taboo.

SYNOPSIS:  A boring, New Jersey couple decide they need to liven things up with a posh dinner in Manhattan. By taking the reservation of another couple, they open themselves up to mistaken identity, car chases, bullets, run ins with corrupt cops, mob bosses and strippers.

Tina Fey and Steve Carrell bring their small screen style of comedy to the big screen in "Date Night". Fans of both Fey and Carrell will enjoy them as a married couple, struggling to keep the spark alive with work and the raising of two kids. They are funny, snarky and intelligent as Phil and Claire Foster, spotlighting the all too real issues of comfortable married life. When they find out that one of their married couple friends are separating, Phil realizes that he needs to make a more romantic gesture to keep their marriage on solid ground. When they can't get a table at an exclusive restaurant, Phil takes the reservation for the absent Triplehorns, leading to Phil and Claire being pursued by cops on the take looking for the "real" Triplehorns and their incriminating flash drive. During their escapades, they dodge bullets, take part in an unique high speed chase involving an Audi and a taxi, enlist the help of ex-military hunk Holbrooke (Mark Wahlberg), track down the Triplehorns (James Franco and Mila Kunis) and have their best moments as a stripper and a pimp working undercover on the pole. But the real laughs come not only with Fey and Carrell, but the supporting cast as well.

Mark Wahlberg's Grant Holbrooke provides a great shirtless straight man for Fey and Carrell to riff off of. Franco as "Taste" and Kunis as "Whippit" give a ghetto voice to what plagues Phil and Claire, to comic effect. Franco in his last couple comic roles, from "The Pineapple Express" to his host stint on SNL is proving he truly has the comic chops to compete with Fey, Kunis and Carrell. "Date Night" primarily goes with the smiles and laughs, but does supply a enough action to keep the story racing along. J.B Smoove proves both the funny and the frantic as the cab driver unwittingly connected to the Fosters during their chase to ditch the cops on their tail. 

With intrigue, smiles and action, "Date Night" is a nice date night movie. Will the younger demographic enjoy it? Maybe not as much as some of the other flicks out there. But anyone married can definitely relate to the Foster's situation. Well, maybe not the flash drives and sideways gun "kill shots", but definitely everything else!

Worth: Matinee and DVD