Date Night

Steve Carell and Tina Fey bring their B+ game for this entertaining caper directed by Shawn Levy, and, for some, putting the king and queen of laughs together like this is the comedy equivalent of teaming Spencer Tracy with Katharine Hepburn for the first time. They play Phil and Claire, a suburban couple with kids who go out on a date to a classy Manhattan restaurant to pep up their dreary marriage. But they haven't booked and when they pretend to be other people to nab a table, a dangerous mistaken-identity situation ensues, with some scary bad guys who've got a beef with the people whose table they have pinched. It's lively stuff with funny lines, droll cameos from Mark Wahlberg and James Franco, and a nice running gag about Jeanne Tripplehorn. Carell and Fey's acting styles are really very different. In closeup, Fey's face looks like that of a real, stressed human being, but Carell's – funny guy though he obviously is – always looks a bit weird: like that of a comedy cyborg with a removable panel in the back of his head. His is an acting style that needs a constant stream of good jokes. These are mostly forthcoming.