In order to try and spice up their marriage, Phil and Claire Foster decide to go on a date night at a trendy restaurant in Manhattan. When they arrive at the restaurant, there are no tables spare so they decide to assume the identities of another couple who had booked, but failed to show up at the restaurant. This leads to a case of mistaken identity and forces the Fosters into a deadly game of cat and mouse with a mobster whom is trying to track down a flash drive that has been stolen from him.Date Night has an OK premise and sets itself up reasonably well; the Fosters live fairly stereotypical monotonous lives of your average bored married couple and also have friends who are in the same boat. It's a believable foundation to build the story on, but somehow Date Night loses its way after about the first 20 minutes...Once the Fosters are mistaken for the other couple then it starts to become a chase picture, but sadly like the Fosters marriage it is dull and lacking any sort of spark. Director Shawn Levy does a reasonable job in moving things along and the film had enough chaotic set-pieces to just about hold my attention, but there are few, if any, genuinely amusing moments. Wahlberg answers the door on about 4 occasions with no shirt on and each time he is asked to "Put on a shirt" - this wasn't particularly funny the first time, but to have this joke repeated on multiple occasions showed a real lack of imagination and was just plain lazy. Looking at this picture it's also hard not to be disappointed by the waste of acting talent on offer here; the likes of Wahlberg, Kunis, Fichtner, Liotta and Franco are all in this picture, but their performances all feel phoned in here (particularly Fichtner and Liotta who just don't seem interested at all).What makes the film partly work are the strong performances from Carell and Fey; Carell plays the same nerdy-gawky type that he always plays, but again he does it to good effect here bringing a sort of nervous charm and likability to the role. Fey is also good in her respective role as both the timid housewife at the start, but she shows that she's got a more ballsy side later in the picture.This isn't a funny film and normally with a film as poor as this I would rate it with a lower score. However, I've given this film a 4 out of 10 because, despite how bad the film is, I did think that Carell and Fey were excellent and believable in their respective roles. There aren't enough good points for me to be able to recommend Date Night, but I'm prepared to give credit to Carell and Fey for trying their best to make this film work.

Carell and Fey are the Fosters, an average married couple with children, living in the burbs. After long days working and taking care of their children they do not have enough energy left for romance, not even on their "date night", which seems a compulsory weekly event.One night they decide to dress up and go to New York, rather than to their local restaurant. They want to dine in a fancy place, but without a reservation they are forced to wait at the bar until the opportunity arises to "steal" the reservation of a no-show couple.This premise is already pretty thin: who would actually go without reservation to a fancy restaurant on a Friday night, hoping somehow to "squeeze in"? What follows is yet another take on the mistaken identity theme, done many times before and much better (should I mention "North by Northwest"?)Mistaken for a couple of petty criminals the Fosters have a series of unfunny adventures with cops and criminals. Taraji P. Henson and Ray Liotta are in the supporting cast. Guess who's the criminal and go with the most predictable option.I saw several Carell's movies and most are hit or miss. With a decent plot, Carell can be very funny in his deadpan way. This was not a good plot but a series of gags that could easily be disconnected: meeting with beefy, rich guy to make hubby jealous; pretending to be a pole dancer; the inevitable car chase, etc….The attempt to squeeze in some "daily wisdom for married couples" further ruined any chance to actually enjoy the story. Disappointing.

Despite an all-star cast, that reads like a who's who of comedians, the much anticipated, Date Night, from Night At The Museum Director, Shawn Levy, failed to deliver in a big way. Of course there is that old saying about too many cooks in the kitchen, but that wasn't the problem here, as individually, the performances were pretty good. What I didn't like about the film, was a lazy story that hasn't only been done before, but seemed to just run around in circles. The Foster family is going through your typical dry spell as a married couple with kids, and the news of a recent friends divorce has them worried about their own relationship, so they decide to start having a regular date night again. Not wanting to wait at a fancy restaurant without a reservation, they claim to be someone else, who are very late arriving to their reserved table. The Foster's think they're just stealing a reservation, instead they are stepping into the lives of two people who are wanted by many different people for many different things, leading to the wildest night of their lives. This story had some great potential, but once again, if these writers would stop worrying about PG-13 vs. R, in regards to who will go see their films, and just let the story take off in whatever direction it's going, the film could have been so much better. Instead, the writers hold back, because they don't want a raunchy comedy, they want a date movie, and the result is a mediocre comedy that should have been so much better than it was. Date Night is good for a chuckle here and there, but otherwise, the story goes in circles, it's predictable, and it wastes the talent of a terrific cast.

Try as he might, Shawn Levy can only take improvisation so far. In some films it's comedy gold, in others it blows over like a soft breeze. Date Night is saved a huge embarrassment thanks to Steve Carell and Tina Fey. They make us easily believe that their marriage is in a rut. A night out in the city centre goes awry when they decide to nick a couple's dinner reservation, and they're believed to be someone they are not. Their personalities bounce off each other, whether it's them bickering or attempting to get out of a mess, they're a pleasure to watch. Accompanying them is a boring, washed out story with a bunch of actors who're unaware of starring in a comedy. Date Night is rife with cameos. Some shine brighter than others, the most notable is Mark Wahlberg's Holbrooke, whose pecks garner more laughs than Fichtner and Liotta put together.Check out my other reviews on http://straighttelling.co.uk