The 30 Rock Office?!?!

Date Night – Shawn Levy

The latest comedy offering from the wonderfully funny Steve Carell and the newest addition to the television to the film apartment: the hilarious Tina Fey. Tina Fey’s been great on a little show called 30 Rock and was one of the best whilst on Saturday Night Live and this is one of, hopefully, many new films she gets to headline and drive, especially in the limelight instead of being in the background. The chemistry of the two fits perfectly with the film and they are two of the funniest people on TV and now film. Well i say that, but the film isn’t as good as you’d hope it to be. It’s been hyped a lot, but unfortunately it lacks a good idea and a good script for it to work, sure the ad-lib by both of them is very good and everything, but it just doesn’t feel right, it just feels like an hour long sketch from SNL. Featuring a smattering of cameos from Mark Wahlberg, Ray Liotta, James Franco, Mila Kunis, Mark Ruffalo, Kristen Wiig, Common and Will.i.am, all of them playing the stereotypical characters they portray in most of their films and it working for some of them and others just seem to be there for their star value. Sure they make a few laughs here and there, but it just doesn’t really fit with the whole story. And again, as mentioned above, it feels like an hour long SNL sketch.

Directed by Shawn Levy, the man behind Night of the Museum, brings the story of the Fosters, played by Carell and Fey, who after being in a seemingly simple marriage decide to go on a date where they steal a reservation and are suddenly thrown into the deep end and begin a wild goose chase around the city as they try to figure out why they are being chased and use people they know to help them. The people chasing them seem to be corrupt police officers so it makes it doubly as difficult to figure out what’s going on for the couple. The couple first go to the couple whose reservation it was and find out they are the ones wanted by the corrupt officers and they are played by Franco and Kunis, who play the role relatively well and bring about some humour to the film. You can tell it has the same vibe as Night at the Museum with different cameos and the lead guy being stupid but loveable at the same time.

It’s a film to have in the background or to something to watch at Christmas. It’s a decent family film which all the family can watch with the parents getting the adult jokes and the children liking the slapstick parts.

5/10

Simon Childs