Steve Carell and Tina Fey are possibly the two hottest comedians on television right now. The paring of the two in an action/comedy was pure genius. I'm a big fan of both actors and I was looking forward to seeing them perform together. Their chemistry is the best thing about this movie. Without them, Date Night would have been another routine high speed comedy. Some of the action sequences were ridiculous enough to garner a few laughs, but overall, the plot wore thin and the action got tiresome by the half way point of the movie.
However, I could have forgiven all that just for the sake of watching these two very funny actors, if it weren't for this film's tendency to wallow in the dark trenches of human depravity. We watched our heroes get involved with crooked cops, mobsters, a pervert politician, a studly guy who lived for sex, and a loser couple who also lived for sex. All of this was intended to give Carell and Fey uncomfortable situations in which to react and be funny. But it was way over the top. They're both capable of making us laugh in simpler, cleaner situations too. Perfect examples are the 2 restaurant scenes toward the beginning when they tried to imagine what other couples might be saying at other tables. Those scenes were funny and sweet.
I give Date night 185 stars for sheer entertainment value, solely on the strength of Carell's and Fey's performances. For moral character, I'll give it 16. That gives it a total score of 201 out of a possible 500.
However, I could have forgiven all that just for the sake of watching these two very funny actors, if it weren't for this film's tendency to wallow in the dark trenches of human depravity. We watched our heroes get involved with crooked cops, mobsters, a pervert politician, a studly guy who lived for sex, and a loser couple who also lived for sex. All of this was intended to give Carell and Fey uncomfortable situations in which to react and be funny. But it was way over the top. They're both capable of making us laugh in simpler, cleaner situations too. Perfect examples are the 2 restaurant scenes toward the beginning when they tried to imagine what other couples might be saying at other tables. Those scenes were funny and sweet.
I give Date night 185 stars for sheer entertainment value, solely on the strength of Carell's and Fey's performances. For moral character, I'll give it 16. That gives it a total score of 201 out of a possible 500.
No comments:
Post a Comment