SYNOPSIS:
Phil and Claire Foster are a sensible, suburban husband and
wife slogging through their daily lives and marriage. But a
case of mistaken identity sets off a n outrageous chain of events
involving small-time thieves, big-city mobsters, corrupt cops
and a crazed cabbie, as the Fosters’ “date night”
turns into a wild ride they’ll never forget!
MOVIE REVIEW:
Steven
Carell and Tina Fey are two of the more successful comedians
on today’s television network. One is toplining "The
Office" while the other is a series regular and writer
on "30 Rock". Thus it doesn’t take a genius
to pair both of them together in a movie feature.
Directed
by Shawn Levy (Night At The Museum) and written by Josh Klausner
(Shrek Forever After), "Date Night" tells the story
of a married couple, the Fosters who accidentally got themselves
tangled into a case of wrong identity and find themselves
in a whole lot of trouble liked being chased after by corrupt
cops, mob boss and a district attorney who has a thing for
kinky sex club.
The premise is simple and at the end of the
day, it’s not the crime that you care about. It’s
more about the fumbling of this pair of boring, routine suburban
couple and their date that turned into more of an adventure.
Carell and Fey are perfect in their roles as the Fosters.
Their comic-timing is impeccable and their chemistry effortless.
You could watch the two of them playing off one another the
whole night not realizing Levy’s direction is not exactly
that inspiring and Klausner’s script is formulaic.
The
casting overall is perfect and besides Carell and Fey, there’s
a running gag that involves a shirtless Mark Wahlberg who
turns up in a cameo as a security expert. And wait there’s
even James Franco (Spiderman) once again channeling his stoner
character from "Pineapple Express", Mila Kunis (The
Book Of Eli) as his partner, resident baddies Ray Liotta and
William Fichtner and rapper Common (Wanted).
We
can’t really sure how much material here is ad-libbed
and improvised on the spot by the cast but some of the sequences
indeed earned a few chuckles followed by laugh-out-loud moments
take for examples the restaurant scene and the pole-dancing
segment. Perhaps Fox is gunning for a PG rating or else given
in the hands of people liked Judd Apatow or Todd Philips,
"Date Night" will likely turns out to be far more
dynamic.
The
script is definitely banal; the car chase seems totally absurd
but Shawn Levy has his wonderful cast to thank for especially
the presence of Carell and Fey to make the movie such a success.
It’s actually not a bad choice for a "Date Night".
SPECIAL
FEATURES :
Alt
City is just another fancy word for alternate takes,
some of them you might find even funnier than the final cut.
Directing 301 – An interesting 21 minutes
feature that takes you on a day with director Shawn Levy on
set in New York City.
Directing
Off Camera – Shawn Levy finds it a thrill to
shout instructions at his cast off-camera although I find
it quite a turn-off.
Gag
Reel – 5 minutes of outtakes to round up the
extras.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
Shot
using a HD camera, there are sequences in the movie that look
unnaturally dull and distracting. With the exception of a
car chase and ambient sound effects, the audio fares like
a typical rom-com offering little excitement and thrills.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD
RATING :
Review
by Linus Tee
Posted
on 6 September 2010
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