Friday, April 9, 2010
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Friday, April 9, 2010
MOVIE REVIEW
Date Night
Criminal Misadventures For
Two? Check, Please.
Tina Fey as Claire Foster and Steve Carell as Phil Foster in Shawn Levy's comedy
"Date Night", which opened today across the U.S. and Canada.
Myles Aronowitz/Fox
By
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
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Friday, April 9, 2010
Shawn Levy's comedy "Date Night" could have been a TV episode for its talented
stars Tina Fey and Steve Carell, who have moments in the film where their talent
shines, but overall are mired in a story that is neither interesting nor
especially funny. The film opened today across the U.S. and Canada.
Resembling films like "The Out-Of-Towners", as well as aspects of a far lighter
version of Martin Scorsese's "After Hours", "Date Night" occurs mostly during
the course of one night in New York City as the Fosters (Miss Fey and Mr. Carell)
leave their kids and residence in New Jersey to enjoy a night on the town in the
Big Apple, and fall into one mishap after another.
The only person who gets this much action on a date is James Bond, and he
manages to do so with a couple of Martinis to spare.
Here, mistaken identity, dishonesty and mishap mires The Fosters, a middle-aged
tandem looking to spark up their routine marriage. In true "Married To The
Mob"-type style they try to get out but are pulled back in. Are there
moments of laughter in the process? Yes, but those are sparse. And
sparse gives way to frenzy, which overwhelms much of the film's second half.
On another note: I'm not sure why "jokes" about a woman's menstrual cycle are
funny, no matter who they're made by. I don't know if women find them
funny, either. I wonder why comedy sometimes has to go the anatomy route
in order to score "points" -- not even intelligent or amusing points.
While that will sound like a moralizing, self-righteous statement, one will
wonder why writer Joshua Klausner felt the need to include such barbs here.
And you've heard the penis jokes before too. (Is insecurity for sale, or
something?)
With Emmy winner Tina Fey, a formidable comedy writer and all-around great
talent on "30 Rock" and on Saturday Night Live, and Steve Carell, who didn't do
badly in "Dan In Real Life" or on his regular stint on NBC TVs "The Office",
couldn't better writing have been done to salvage this wayward film?
"Date Night" is wayward in part because of its poor editing. Comedies
needn't be technical masterpieces but should at least be coherent. If you
are familiar with the streets of New York City and Los Angeles you will notice
the abrupt shift in street name signs from green to blue and of the names of the
streets, during a night time chase sequence. Did I notice this because I
was standing by the exit for the entire time while watching this film?
Maybe, maybe not. But I really was standing. (Don't ask.)
The sleight of hand with cities standing in for others in films has been done
forever, sometimes executed well in the editing room, other times not, and
sometimes intentionally not. "Date Night" was an "other times not"
endeavor. Sloppy and lazy editing, indicating a lack of care to even shape
a film better than this one turned out.
And more often than not, many cameos in a film signal trouble. If an
audience needs to be distracted from the story in progress by the presence of a
well-known actor or actress, perhaps it's time to make a film with the new
players on the screen or stop the present movie in its tracks. "Date
Night" has its fair share of cameos here, but they are nudge-nudge, wink-wink
affairs, triumphs of caricature over character.
Cheer up, you say: it's a comedy. I know, but it isn't even a decent one.
Check, please!
With: A whole host of cameos.
"Date Night" is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association Of America for
sexual and crude content throughout, language, some violence and a drug
reference. The film's running time is one hour and 28 minutes.
Unscripted review of "Date Night":
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Read more movie reviews and stories from Omar
here.
Read Omar's "Far-Flung Correspondent" reports for America's pre-eminent Film
Critic Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times -
here
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