|
A married couple (Tina Fey and Steve Carell) discover cops can be dangerous in the action comedy “Date Night.” |
“Date Night” steals its principal plot device from Alfred Hitchcock’s classic “North by Northwest,” its spectacular New York car crashes from “The Blues Brothers,” and its put-upon main characters from “The Out of Towners.”
By all rights, this should be a commercially successful but instantly forgettable lightweight popcorn movie to tide the American public over until Hollywood brings out the big summer guns next month.
But the irresistible pairing of Steve Carell and Tina Fey turns “Date Night” into something else, a breezy comedy of errors exploding with chemistry, quotable quips and a surprising amount of empathy, especially in a movie from Shawn Levy, director of the vacuous box office hits “Night at the Museum” and its sequel.
Carell and Fey play “just a boring married couple from New Jersey” who have gotten into a passionless rut. He plays a tax accountant named Phil Foster. She plays his real estate sales wife Claire. (Read more…)