Date Night

Date Night
Fact: Steve Carell is cool. Cooler than you. He could take your dad in a fight.
Fact: Tiny Fey is the second funniest woman in television (the first being Megyn Kelly of Fox News) and she too could take your dad in a fight.
Unfortunately, what tends to happen in PG-13 comedies is that they get brought down by unoriginal jokes and clichés, and Date Night suffers from that. However, for all the usual jokes and predictable plot points, the movie still had some originality to it, and had endless material provided by Odin and Rindr (the original names of the Norse gods Carell and Fey).
So the plot is simple (Which is good for a comedy. Most comedies with a plot as complex as The Prestige deserve to get hit in the face.) A married couple feels like they are unhappy with their life. (hehe. Starting to sound like an Ian Deming movie.) So they feel like, in order to break the boring cycle they are falling into, and to end up happier than the people they are surrounded by, they need to make some sort of drastic change to their life (Oh shit, it’s an Ian Deming movie. My film is an original movie like Ice Ice Baby is an original song.) So this middle-aged couple (oh, thank god.) decide to eat at a fancy restaurant, but in order to get in, take someone’s reservation (Ok. We’re steering clear now.) There, they meet will I am (damn it! Back to the drawing board!) and are having a jolly good time, until two bad guys mistake them for the people who made the reservation. As a result, the two are brought to a big-time drug dealer and immediately executed-nope nope. Sorry, that’s my movie. Keep getting them confused. Anyway, they escape and flee for their lives, trying to figure out who the “Triplehorns” are, and why they are trying to be killed. They are assisted by Mark Walberg and a police officer played by Taraji P. Henson, bravely showing her face after I can Do Bad All By My- Oh shit, I’m bleeding. I’m bleeding out my ears. Blood shouldn’t come out of there!...anyway, they couple needs to make everything better and, on the side, also make sure that their marriage isn’t falling apart. It’s just like the plot to I Can Do Ba-……………………………….
I’ve had mixed feelings about this movie, and having them all summarized in an essay format for a review is no fun. So instead, I present to you, my three views of Date Night, presented by three different Ians.
Pre-Movie (Pessimistic Hateful Emo Ian)
This whole thing is so stupid. Who wants to watch a movie about a couple of people who have lived past their interesting years, trying to do something interesting. That movie doesn’t reflect the reality of the world. (To clarify: the reality of the world is that people don’t really love each other and couples don’t have fun trying to respark their live. They have divorce, murder/suicide, or settling. We’ll all die alone in this dark world and that’s why comedy is always bad.) This movie was made for like, people in their 40’s and children. This movie clearly has no originality and just wants to make a quick buck because its part of the heartless producer’s plan to herd all of these sheep into the theater, and butcher them with what they call entertainment. Fuck this, I’m seeing How To Train Your Dragon...Fuck this, I’m going home to watch Requiem for a Dream while I write sonnets of my former love that is now dead: quality movies.
During-Movie ( Skeptical Pretentious Arrogant Critic Ian)
Oh, gee, I wonder if something will go wrong with their initial plan. I wonder if he makes a joke here. I wonder if this is the part where the two take a dramatic moment. I wonder if this will all work out in the end. Ok, the problem is that this movie is doing everything every comedy does. They stopped to have a dramatic scene by pulling over, despite the fact that there are people trying to kill them. Oh, so you have a car chase, unoriginal jokes, gunfights, and a shirtless Mark Warburg. If this isn’t every comedy, action, softcore porn movie I’ve ever seen, I don’t know what is. How about a comedy that isn’t afraid to take risks and do something different. This is just a stupid comedy for stupid people who think this stupid shit is funny. I’m going to go home and blog about my intellectual superiority and why us few enlightened people see why this film is for fools. The only thing I find funny is that the movie is about two people who take something boring and try to make it interesting, but are failing miserably, reflecting the nature of the movie itself. Snicker snicker.
After-Movie (Frighteningly Optimistic yet Reasonable Ian)
Well, that movie made me laugh, probably more because of the actors than the actual movie, but all the same, the jokes were funny. The movie was different from other comedies I’ve seen, and did a lot despite its limitations (being a PG-13, somewhat family friendly movie). I’m going to go home and share with the world the greatness of Date Night.
Overall
I did have a bias against this film going in, and I can’t say that the movie won me over in the end, but all the same, the movie did it’s job and made me laugh. Carell and Fey are believable (which is important even in comedies. I’ll just say American History X wasn’t laugh less because of the writing or plot (Hope you’re listening Ed Norton)) Mark Walberg is funny and shirtless, a feat I thought only Sean Connery could accomplish, and although the movie had painful clichés, some parts of the movie were filled with lulz. The movie should also get credit for an action scene that takes place, were two cars are stuck together and the drivers try to work together to escape the bad guys. That scene was pretty cool, and original. But what really makes the movie something great is the performance of Mark Ruffalo- HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! AAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! AAAAAha. AAAAAAha. AAAAHHAAHHAAAAHHAAHHAAAHAHAHAHA! hehehehehahahahaHAHAHAHA! Ehhe. Hehe. No but really, what I liked most was the improvisation and performance and Steve Carell and Tina Fey. Without them, this would probably be less than some B movie.
However, there are nitpicks.
1) The movie was shot in digital. As a result, I couldn’t see what was going on because every chase scene was blurry. And not like, Bourne Trilogy blurry, but it was annoying all the same.
2) Why is Mark Ruffalo in this movie? It’s not even a cameo, he just shows up, says the only depressing lines in the movie, then leaves. Why? This man has a career. What is he doing here? I don’t have a big problem with him being in the movie. It’s just…confusing.
3) Some jokes sucked…It happens.
4) Mark Walberg is constantly without a shirt in this film, but is always wearing pants. This is a problem. You are Marky-Mark. Become who you were born to be!
I don’t have much to say about this movie, and I’m just neutral to just about everything in this movie. It wasn’t particularly memorable, it wasn’t a bad way to spend an hour and a half. Most points go to He-Man Carell and She-Ra Fey. Overall, Date Night is a movie that will give you several laughs, but does have its fair share of stupid and clichés.
Final Rating: 6/10
P.S. The Prestige is a comedy, right?