Date Night :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews 10-04-21 10:59 PM

movie reviews

Reviews Great Movies Answer Man People Commentary Festivals Oscars Glossary One-Minute Reviews Letters Roger Ebert's Journal Scanners Store

News Sports Business Entertainment Classifieds Columnists

search (PG-13) Ebert: Users: You: Rate this movie right now

Site Web Search powered by YAHOO! GO advanced » tips »

register

You are not logged in.

Log in »

Subscribe to weekly newsletter »

answer man in theaters and Steve Carell in "Date Night." latest reviews 03/31/2010 »

Date Night Death at a Funeral times & tickets The Eclipse BY ROGER EBERT / April 7, 2010 Home Fandango Steve Carell and Tina Fey The Joneses Search movie play a nice, unassuming Kick-Ass showtimes and buy cast & credits The Perfect Game tickets. couple in "Date Night," and that's one of the in Their Eyes reasons the movie works Phil Foster Steve Carell more current releases » about us so well. Their Phil and Claire Foster Tina Fey Claire Foster are a Taste James Franco one-minute movie reviews normal, overworked, Holbrook Mark Wahlberg About the site » sincere, good-natured Whippit still playing New Jersey couple whose Site FAQs » Mob boss lives have become Brooklyn's Finest Contact us » routine. But they love one 20th Century Fox presents a film another, and all they really 45365 directed by Shawn Levy. want is to hire a babysitter After.Life Email the Movie Screenplay by Josh Klausner. Answer Man » and enjoy a nice Ajami Running time: 88 minutes. MPAA on the town. Alice in Wonderland rating: PG-13 for sexual and crude The Art of the Steal on sale now We believe that. We're content throughout, language, halfway prepared for a some violence and a drug Blood Done Sign My Name low-key romantic comedy reference. The Bounty Hunter when all hell breaks lose. The Chaser They pretend to be an Printer-friendly » Chloe absent couple in order to E-mail this to a friend » City Island grab a reservation at a Clash of the Titans trendy restaurant, and two Cop Out hit men assume they are that couple and topple The Crazies Buy now » them into a screwball comedy. Yet all the time Phil and Claire seem Creation like the kind of people who don't belong in a screwball comedy. Date Night That's why it's funny. They're bewildered. Dear John Death at a Funeral "Date Night" supplies them with the "real" Tripplehorns (James Diary of a Wimpy Kid Franco and Mila Kunis), two mob-employed cops (Jimmi Simpson District 13: and ), a mob boss (Ray Liotta) and a muscular security expert (Mark Wahlberg) who never wears a shirt. These characters The Eclipse are also somewhat believable. Plots like this have a way of spinning Edge of Darkness over the top with insane manic behavior. It's as if the characters are Fish Tank Buy now » http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100407/REVIEWS/100409990 Page 1 of 3 Date Night :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews 10-04-21 10:59 PM

Buy now » desperately signaling, Look at us! Aren't we hilarious? But the Formosa Betrayed audience has to bring hilarity to you. It can't be assumed. From Paris With Love The Ghost Writer So what we have is a situation set in motion because a couple The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo named the Tripplehorns don't turn up for a restaurant reservation. The Fosters, mistaken for the Tripplehorns, find themselves in way The Good Guy over their heads with the Tripplehorns' potentially fatal problems. The Greatest The criminal characters aren't simply stupid, but bright enough to Green Zone perceive this causes a problem for everyone. And the security Greenberg Buy now » agent (Wahlberg) is not simply a muscle-bound goon. He's a Happy Tears caricature, all right, but one living in a condo out of Architectural Home Digest and capable of feeling some sympathy for these pathetic Hot Tub Time Machine New Jerseyites who've lost their way. How to Train Your Dragon Carell and Fey are both natural comic performers, who know (as The Joneses Second City teaches) that a comedian must never seem to know Kick-Ass that it's funny. They play Phil and Claire as nearly as possible like The Last Song plausible people trapped by this nightmare misunderstanding. Yes, The Last Station things heat up a little, and yes, there is an obligatory chase scene, Leaves of Grass Buy now » and yes, it's a little unlikely how they end up appealing to the The Most Dangerous Man in America security expert. That goes with the territory. Mother But they know, as great comic actors like Cary Grant and Jack My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done Lemmon knew, that their job in a comedy is to behave with as Nick Nolte: No Exit much realism as possible and let the impossibilities whirl around North Face them. To begin with, Carell and Fey look like they might be a Our Family Wedding pleasant married couple. Attractive, but not improbably so. Young, Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief but not that young. Fit, but they don't reveal unexpected skills. And The Perfect Game Buy now» frightened when they need to be. Do you ever wonder why the characters in some movies are never gob-smacked in the face of A Prophet what seems like certain death? Red Riding Trilogy Remember Me All of this is a way of saying that "Date Night" is funny because, Repo Men against all odds, it is involving. Each crazy step in the bizarre plot The Runaways made a certain sense because it followed from what went before; Saint John of Las Vegas it's like the Scorsese masterpiece "After Hours." The director is The Secret of Kells Shawn Levy, who committed the two "Night at the Museum" movies, and here shows that he is much more successful when he She's Out of My League Buy now» stays far away from CGI. Remember that he also made the Shutter Island entertaining "Cheaper by the Dozen," with and Bonnie Still Bill Hunt as a hard-pressed married couple. Terribly Happy Valentine's Day A movie like "Date Night" encourages Hollywood comedy to Vincere occasionally dial down, and realize that comedy emerges from Waking Sleeping Beauty characters and situations and can't be manufactured from manic stunts and overkill. If you don't start out liking the Fosters and The Wolfman hoping they have a really nice date night, not much else is going to The Yellow Handkerchief Buy now» work. more current releases » on dvd Refinance Now at 4.0% Fixed $160,000 Mortgage for $633/mo. Free. new on dvd MortgageRefinance.LendGo.com

35 Shots of Rum (4/20) Obama Urges Homeowners to Refinance Summer Hours (4/20) Rates Hit 3.62% APR! Mammoth (4/20) www.SeeRefinanceRates.com The Lovely Bones (4/20) The Horse Boy (4/20) Crazy Heart (4/20) Shopping.com The Relic (4/6) Shop, compare & find more value for your Sherlock Holmes (3/30) www.shopping.com An Education (3/30) The Baader-Meinhof Complex (3/30) more new on dvd » Property Tax Lien Date Tax Lien. Enter the world of loanhelp. loanhelp.biz coming on dvd

Avatar (4/22) Ads by Yahoo! more coming on dvd » great movies on dvd

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (1/2) Cache (1/13) The Hairdresser's Husband (1/27) Howards End (2/23) Make Way for Tomorrow (2/23) Pink Floyd: The Wall (2/24) The Big Lebowski (3/10) Gone With the Wind (4/13) My Life to Live / Vivre sa Vie (4/20) http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100407/REVIEWS/100409990 Page 2 of 3 Date Night :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews 10-04-21 10:59 PM

more great movies on dvd »

© copyright 2010, rogerebert.com

Privacy Policy Terms of Use Submission Guidelines

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100407/REVIEWS/100409990 Page 3 of 3