en-us Copyright 2008 - All Rights Reserved. Fri, 24 May 2013 22:42:39 GMT 15 By Meklit Gebre-Mariam
Steve Carell and Tina Fey are hilarious in their respective comedies The Office and 30 Rock. In Date Night? Not so much. Carell and Fey play a boring married couple (and believe me, the boring part is the most authentic thing in this movie), Phil and Claire Foster, whose night out in the town goes south. What started out as an attempt to reignite their fallen romance turns into a full-on cop chase. Sounds exciting, right? You’re wrong, it isn’t. It seems that the writers knew this too because they included a few cheap tricks to gain laughter, such as Carell doing his best hardcore impressions, consisting of him adding “yo” and “dawg” in between his sentences. Fey plays the naive, middle-class white woman deficient in slang: “Honey, I don’t want to get whacked off.” But most of the jokes (if you can call them that) fall flat. Somewhere in all the un-funniness, a strip club is added. Yes, Fey and Carell dance together on a pole. And yes, it was a bit disturbing. Clearly the writers were in over their heads. It’s understandable that they weren’t aiming for originality, but this movie is ridiculous. Audiences knew what to expect. The plot is practically spelled out for them in the two minute trailer: couple stumbles into mysterious case, turns out to be bigger than expected, ends up in a lot of trouble, for some lame reason can’t go to the cops, etc. Date Night was at least supposed to generate some buzz with their long (and unnecessary) list of guest cameos. Unfortunately it was just compensation for the movie’s lack of comedy. Mark Wahlberg’s shirtless appearance was probably one of the highlights of the movie. Now, whether that’s sad or fantastic, I still haven’t decided. James Franco (Pineapple Express) and Mila Kunis (That ‘70s Show) were also present, playing the Tripplehorns, a husband-wife criminal duo. To see two stars like Carell and Fey with so much potential wasted on a travesty like Date Night was completely depressing. It reminds you that even the great falter in taste occasionally. Hopefully you won’t. This weekend save yourself and go watch a movie that’ll actually make you laugh, because this sure won’t. ]]> Tue, 04 May 2010 20:08:28 GMT