Date Night

A moderately amusing and ultimately underwhelming comedy, Date Night is what happens when exceptional actors are restrained by unimaginative writing and direction. Starring as suburban New Jersey parents attempting to spice up their lives with a spontaneous evening out in Manhattan, Steve Carell and Tina Fey are quite convincing as beleaguered spouses and have considerable chemistry, but what they don't have is the freedom to cut loose as they often do in their day jobs—The Office and 30 Rock, respectively. While both actors have a talent for working charmingly absurd humor into the most mundane situations, here that tendency is held back by obligations to what passes for plot—in this case, mistaken identity leads to our nice bridge-and-tunnel protagonists being ruthlessly pursued for a flash drive, an internet-era version of Hitchcock's meaningless MacGuffin device. Many of the jokes are grin-inducing, but the third time Carell asks buff, bare-chested co-star Mark Wahlberg to put on a shirt, it stops being funny. Known for his effects-heavy Night at the Museum movies, director Shawn Levy can't help but try to make Date Night into a spectacle, and this attempt, with its predictable car-chases and gunfire, finds conventional action outmaneuvering any other quality, with Carell and Fey's winning awkwardness becoming the movie's unfortunate main casualty.