Review: Date Night

Date Night
Dir. Shawn Levy
Year: 2010
Aus Rating: M
Running Tine: 88mins

The thought of spending 90 minutes with Steve Carell (The 40-Year-Old Virgin) and Tina Fey (Mean Girls) would normally be a fun thing to do with your evening. In the case of Date Night, however, director Shawn Levy (cinematic travesties Just Married and Cheaper by the Dozen) appears to have done his best to make even these two funny and talented lead performers unpalatable.

Read the rest over at Trespass Mag.
The friend that I dragged along to see Date Night had a much harder time reconciling his feelings towards Date Night as I. There definitely were quite a few moments that I found myself laughing quite heartily, but the film is just so poorly done. Anytime it descends into sentimental pap then it just falls into a black hole of awfulness. Thank god Carell and Fey have adlibbing skills!

And, lastly, hasn't the resurrection of James Franco from pretty-but-bland James Dean wannabe into sensitive-and-yet-hysterical character actor been one of the most fascinating things to watch these last few years. Throw his cameo in Date Night alongside Pineapple Express, Milk and (apparently) Howl and his career looks far more impressive than when he was making those terrible movies like Annapolis and Tristan + Isolde. And let's face it, he's not bad to look at either. If only he'd taken his shirt off for extended periods of time instead of Mark Wahlberg.