Movie Review: Date Night

The other day I went to watch this movie with my cousins as I had been hoping to catch it after having seen the trailer when I went to watch the mindnumbing Clash of the Titans. This pseudo chick flick(I say pseudo chick flick as my cousin had somehow pegged it as such even after having seen the trailer and knowing the cast list) stars Steve Carell and Tina Fey of the hit comedy shows “The Office” and “30 Rock” and it’s about a married couple who are in a bit of a rut in the romance department and one night, they decide to try new things to spice things up. As one would expect with names like these involved, the movie follows the couple’s antics through Manhattan as they try to sort themselves out of a catastrophic misunderstanding with some bad men.

First of all let me point out that this is not a comedy with plot tacked on but rather plot tacked on with good bits of comedy. Were it not for the fact that the main characters played their roles with their own brand of delightful humour, I would actually consider this to be a rather serious movie that really was a look into the troubles of middle aged couples. Thankfully there was still a great deal of chemistry and good writing that kept it from being too serious. After all, I went to see Michael and Liz star in an action packed comedy so I was pleasantly surprised to discover that there was more to it than just that.

I hesitate to reveal what happens in the movie exactly as the plot was actually quite well done and managed to throw in a few twists that I was impressed at having been done. However, I do not hesitate to tell you that the awesome sports car you see in there will suffer a horrible fate as anyone with half a brain should already know that movie makers just love to crash the lovely automobiles that their backers paid for(I curse the 007 movies for this). At least we do get a great action scene when the car does get smashed and it’s handled rather impressively both in the comedy and action aspects.

I’d like to praise the actors, the writers and the director for being able to flesh out the characters so well. I don’t mean just the main characters but also the supporting cast for demonstrating such great interactions between them. I especially liked the black guy for managing to look so heartbroken as he shouted about the road only going one way and adding another layer of funny to that particular scene. I would like to know about that politicians’ broom gimmick though as they never really explained the reason behind that character’s particular fixation on his broom. Hopefully someone will post up a Word Of God entry into the movie’s TvTropes page concerning the broom.

All in all, this was a pretty good movie and it works in the same vein as the “Get Smart” movie that Steve Carell also starred in. I can’t say it’s a memorable one though as the only part that really stood out was the chase scene. That being said, I still think it’s worth your ticket money and the one and a half hours or so you spend in the cinema but don’t expect it to be a gold mine of comedy like I did. It’s really more of a silver mine in the comedy department but though it didn’t quite meet my expectation there, it was still a witty ride that had far more ups than downs.