Yay Movies: Date Night

What do you get when you put two of the funniest people on television in a movie with an above average script and lots of funny cameos? I'll give you a hint: it's not another Will Ferrell movie, it's Date Night.

With Steve Carell and Tina Fey, you get exactly what you paid for. Hysterical comedy delivered by some top-notch talent. Both actors, having come up on the mean streets of the Second City comedy scene, have impeccable timing and excellent chemistry with each other. Not only that, but they are believable in their roles as a suburban New Jersey couple who have settled into their married life, and are shackled down by routine. In an effort to spice up their love life and be spontaneous, they take a trip into NYC and try to get a table at an exclusive seafood restaurant called "Klaw". Obviously on a Friday night in a trendy new restaurant there are no available tables. So they hang out at the bar, and after the "Tripplehorn" party of two never arrives, they steal the reservation. After enjoying their meal, they are accosted by a couple of thugs, who drag them out to the alley behind the restaurant. The pair (one of which is played by Common) demand the "flash drive" that the "Tripplehorns" are trying to blackmail them with. What follows isn't at all original, but extremely enjoyable nontheless. Fey and Carell carry the entire movie, and their banter and reactions to one another had me laughing out loud.

The hysterical cameos by Mark "say hi to ya mother for me" Wahlberg, and James Franco highlight the rest of the flick. Other notable names that appear throughout the movie are Ray Liota (who plays a gangster, big f'ing shock I know), Mila Kunis, Kristen Wiig and Mark Ruffalo. William Fichtner (trust me, you know him) does a great job as a creepy sex-addict District Attorney ("Sex Robots" is one of the funniest lines in the film). The real glue here is Carell and Fey. Without those two, it's just a run of the mill mistaken identity film. For their outstanding work, Date Night gets an 8 out of 10 (or a "goooood" on the Butts Film Scale, hereafter referred to as the BFS).

Coming Soon:

A "Summer Movies That I Give A Shit About" preview, as I run down the flicks that have made my Summer "to see" list, including my expected grades. Also this weekend "Kick Ass" comes out, a comic book flick that I am very pumped to see. If you believe Mark Millar (and I do), it may be quite the sleeper hit. We'll see...