‘Date Night’ Has Funny Moments, Makes It Worth Going Out By Art Byrd

“Date Night’ Has Funny Moments, Makes It Worth Going Out

By Art Byrd

“Date Night” is a mistaken identity comedy. The film stars two of TV’s funniest stars: Steve Carell of “The Office” and Tina Fey of “30 Rock”. They make a good comedy team as they play off each other.

The story centers around the two as Phil and Claire Foster, a married couple from New Jersey who have grown into the same routine of date-night dinner at the same steak house.  Some of their friends are on the verge of divorce, and they wonder if that can happen to them. 

One date night, Phil decides to take Claire to an exclusive restaurant in New York City. When they arrive at the restaurant, they are told that the place is booked and to wait in the bar to see if there is a cancellation. The hostess (played Olivia Munn, host of the cable show “Attack of the Show”) calls out a couple’s name, “The Triplehorns,” No one answers, so Phil shouts out that he and Claire are “The Triplehorns” to get the table.

Phil and Claire are enjoying their meal when they are approached to two guys, Collins and Armstrong, played by rapper turned actor Common and Jimmi Simmons. Phil and Claire think they are from the restaurant so they go out in an alley to talk. (If you’re asking yourself what restaurant managers take customers to the alley to talk – so was I.) Obviously, Phil and Claire are clueless. The guys think they are the couple that Phil took the reservations from, “The Triplehorns.”

Collins and Armstrong are looking for a flash drive with important information on it. After being threatened with guns, Phil invents a fake place to find the flash drive. Somehow, he and Claire escape in a slow boat. The bad guys start shooting at them, but miss. (Why can’t bad guys ever hit their target, especially one like an especially slow-moving boat??)

For Phil and Claire, the incident begins a crazy night that includes a visit to the police department, a strange car chase and meeting weird people. Of course, as it often it seems with mistaken identity stories, and the important information links back to a mob figure -- this one played by Ray Liotta.

A funny moment is when the Fosters track down the real Triplehorns – also not that couple’s real names. Mila Kunis (“That 70’s Show”) and a heavily-tattooed James Franco (“Spiderman” & “Spiderman 3”) are very funny as the couple, who live in a terribly messy apartment and not at all the type who would make reservations at an expensive, exclusive restaurant.

“Date Night” is funny but not laugh-out-loud funny. It is a film mixed with tenderness and funny situations, and wraps up in a neat way. It has a lot of holes in the story from a realism standpoint. But Carell and Fey make a good comedy team, and it would be good to see them again on their next date. 

At the end of the film, stick around for the outtakes, which offer a little more hillarity than the movie.  

edited by Michele Ristich Gatts