Review of Date Night (2010) by Ed K — 24 Oct 2016

Despite an all-star cast, that reads like a who's who of comedians, the much anticipated, Date Night, from Night At The Museum Director, Shawn Levy, failed to deliver in a big way. Of course there is that old saying about too many cooks in the kitchen, but that wasn't the problem here, as individually, the performances were pretty good.

What I didn't like about the film, was a lazy story that hasn't only been done before, but seemed to just run around in circles. The Foster family is going through your typical dry spell as a married couple with kids, and the news of a recent friends divorce has them worried about their own relationship, so they decide to start having a regular date night again.

Not wanting to wait at a fancy restaurant without a reservation, they claim to be someone else, who are very late arriving to their reserved table. The Foster's think they're just stealing a reservation, instead they are stepping into the lives of two people who are wanted by many different people for many different things, leading to the wildest night of their lives.

This story had some great potential, but once again, if these writers would stop worrying about PG-13 vs. R, in regards to who will go see their films, and just let the story take off in whatever direction it's going, the film could have been so much better.

Instead, the writers hold back, because they don't want a raunchy comedy, they want a date movie, and the result is a mediocre comedy that should have been so much better than it was. Date Night is good for a chuckle here and there, but otherwise, the story goes in circles, it's predictable, and it wastes the talent of a terrific cast.