Review of Date Night (2010) by Chris M — 15 Jun 2013

This is not a great film. The plot is predictable and formulaic, most of the supporting characters are one-dimensional at best, and it's almost instantly forgettable...

BUT.

I really enjoyed it during the fairly tight 100-minute runtime, and it easily passed the "six laughs"test often touted by Mark Kermode as a gauge for a comedy. Steve Carell and Tina Fey are terrific, outplaying the fairly weak script with some great improvisation, and hurling themselves into the banalities of the plot with abandon. They're always worth watching, and of course some of the gags about being boring and married resonated nicely with my wife and I (married 15 years, 2 kids!). And I loved Mark Wahlberg's non-performance as Holbrooke. It would have been even better if he'd just been playing himself.

Great fun. That's it.