Date Night (2010)

Verdict:  8/10

Ads before the movie in theatre:

1. New Samsung 3D. The ad was amazing on the big screen although I doubt the real effect of the T.V.

2. Trailer of The A-Team, which was rather uninspiring with the only inspiration being Liam Neeson's face.

3. Insipid trailer of The Bounty Hunter starring Jennifer Aniston & Gerard Butler. I found the comedy rather bland. Never a fan of Aniston.

Date Night is directed by Shawn Levy whose previous credits include The Pink Panther & Night at the Museum movies amongst others.

The movie stars Steve Carell & Tina Fey as the married couple Phil and Claire Foster living in New Jersey with 2 children. They are one of those couples who lead the same monotonous routine life, day in & day out. Although they do love & admire each other, they feel nothing "special" or magic in their relation as well as life. Every week they go on a date night to the local restaurant where they make jokes & amuse themselves by imitating other couples' talks & guessing their stories. But even this has become a tiresome experience now. When their best friends inform the Fosters about their divorce by saying that they no longer feel like couple but good room mates, Fosters feel the same about themselves. So in order to rekindle their romance Steve takes Claire on a date to a costly Manhattan restaurant.

But they don't get a table. A couple by the name of Tripplehorns reserves a table there but they don't show up, so our Fosters assume their name & sit at that table. The original Tripplehorns have a flash drive containing some secret information related to the district attorney (William Fichtner, I just completed season 4 of Prison Break in which Fichtner has a key role) who has connections with the local mobster Joe Miletto (Ray Liotta). So Joe sends 2 of his men, who are also cops, to fetch the flash drive from The Tripplehorns. From hereon your normal game of mistaken identity starts. Fosters explain that they were not Tripplehorns but since the 2 men doesn't listen, they escape & their date night becomes an adventure filled run night. With the help of Holbrooke Grant (Mark Wahlberg), who is a past client of Claire, they track the Tripplehorns (James Franco & Mila Kunis), get the flash drive but lose it again, & finally with some help from Grant & police, trap the district attorney & mobster redhanded.  

I've been waiting for this movie for quite sometime & the movie didn't disappoint me at all. There are many good things about the movie. First & important one is that Tina Fey & Steve Carell are absolutely perfect as the bored couple. As the Fosters, they are made for each other.  Performances of everyone involved in Date Night are pitch perfect. Like the scene at their initial datenight where Tina Fey looks for a second at a kissing couple & her expression says everything about their current relation. Infact every time a new character enters, rest assure laughs guaranteed. The whole intro scene of Mark Wahlberg is super funny. I didn't know that James Franco was in the movie. His & Mila Kunis part & that whole scene was one of the best parts of the movie. There was one good lengthy action piece involving two cars attached to each other. 

Even in the scenes which are supposed to be calm, the leads made sure that there is not a dull moment with their earnest performances. Their conversations come through honest & interesting in serious scenes & absolutely funny in the comic scenes. Credit & thumbs-up to both director Shawn Levy & the writer Josh Klausner.

The only bad thing about the movie was that based on the promos I thought this would be a romcom with slight action but this turned out to be an actioncom with romance. Might be my fault to have a wrong expectation. In an Indian movie, generally you have an interval around the 75 minute mark. Date Night runs for around only 85 minutes & I felt the movie was over in 40 minutes which shows how much I enjoyed it. 

Oh, I forgot to mention the line which was in every headline about the movie. There is a talk that without this line you can't mention Date Night. Here it comes. Mark Wahlberg has no shirt in the movie. Now my review is complete. You want to target teenage girls. Make Taylor Lautner shed his shirt. You want to attract young women. Make Wahlberg shed his shirt. You want to attract old women. Make ________ shed his shirt. You can fill in the blank in the comments.

There was not an yawn inducing moment in the movie & the grin never left my face right from the very first scene to the last kiss scene at the end credits. Gosh! I would love a sequel.

My advice to the couples. Go to the movie. You'll enjoy this unless you hate Tina Fey. Then go to a restaurant & start imitating the people there.

Finally I have a couple of messages.

Tina Fey, if you ever read this, I love you (sorry Jeff). [I am hearing the voice of Tina Fey calling me from the theatre for another view.]

Oscar organizers, let Tina Fey be the host next year, pleeeease.


Love to hear your views,