Carell and Fey are not enough to keep me awake through Date Night

Date Night

Directed by Shaun Levy

Starring Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Mark Wahlberg, James Franco, Mila Kunis, Ray Liotta, Mark Ruffalo, Common, J.B. Smoove, William Fichtner, Kristin Wiig

What an immense amount of talent that showed up for a movie that plays like the married version of Adventures In Babysitting.  I have two little girls and one woman living in my house, so I get to spend too much time watching the Elisabeth Shue opus.  Starting out with your typical (am I bored with my marriage?) set up, we see our protagonists, Phil and Claire Foster (Carell and Fey) going through the motions, with a courtesy, but maybe no flair to their relationship.  Date night is typically dinner at a comfortable restaurant, making fun of the couples around them.  They are okay with this.

One night, at a session of the Book Reading club that they are part of, Phil and Claire discover another couple of friends are getting a divorce.  Ruffalo plays it straight, and the result is unsettling.  Wiig, unfortunately, plays it as if the marriage has been really just an inconvenience keeping her from her dreams of a threesome with two black men.  Gee, that is really cute.

So of course this shocks the Fosters into action.  Claire dresses up real purty for the next Date Night, and when Carell sees this, he decides that it is time to eat dinner in the big city.  The scenes at The Claw, intended to be funny, come across as labored.  We get it, it is a privilege to be there.  In the process of being shunned by the elites, they decide to take someone else’s reservations.

Wackiness ensues as they are mistaken for someone else, harassed by some unconvincing bad guys (Common and a white guy

not worth naming).  In the process of escaping they make several bad moves and still get away.  Then they go to the local P.D. and what do you know but the bad guys are cops.  Feign surprise, and labor on until the end.  Midway through the hodge podge, there is a nice seen with Mark Wahlberg.  He is a former client of the real estate salesman Claire and they seem to remember each other quite well.  His mere presence allows Carell and Fey to play more up to their potential, working into an effective scene.  Not so good is the interactions between Kunis, Franco and the duo.

At this point, the movie just seems to be parading people in and out in cameos, just to see if anything sticks.  J.B Smoove is involved in an entertaining head on, but is so soon out of the picture, it feels like a waste.  Every thing ends up on top of a roof, with all the bad guys pointing guns at each other.  Thrilling.

All told, the movie has its moments, but not many of them.  Shaun Levy does about on par with his earlier work (Cheaper by the Dozen, The Pink Panther, the Night at the Museum flicks).  I kind of wanted to watch this movie.  I barely stayed up through it.  You could do worse, unfortunately most do no better.

(** out of *****)