Date Night DVD Review




Title: Date Night
Starring: Steve Carell, Tina Fey, James Franco, Mila Kunis, Mark Wahlberg
Director: Shawn Levy
Duration: 102 minutes (extended version)
Certificate: 15
Format: Blu-ray / DVD

Married couple Phil and Claire Foster (Steve Carell and Tina Fey) live in New Jersey. They have two children but they are bored with live. Everything has become routine. Phil is a lawyer and Claire is an estate agent or as the Yanks like to call it – a realtor.

Brad (Mark Ruffalo) and Hayley (Kristen Wiig) are their best friends, but they’re getting a divorce. Determined to put some spark back into their lives and their marriage in order not to end up like Brad and Hayley but that’s just when things get interesting, and a little bit dangerous when they get involved with a local mob boss.

At this point you might be thinking, oh no this is another Did You Hear About The Morgans? – the lame rom-com starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Hugh Grant, but fear not Carell and Fey are actually a lot funnier than Parker and Grant and Ruffalo and Wiig offer better support than Sam Elliott and Mary Steenburgen. It’s a relief because watching Did You Hear About The Morgans? is a painful way to spend 90 minutes. You’re far better off in the company of Carell and Fey. And the plot is also better, if still a bit clichéd and naff… mob bosses, where are we 1920s Chicago? That aside it’s the laughs that make this film tick and the star chemistry between the leads that will keep you watching.

Carell has certainly made better films but this one doesn’t do his CV any real harm, whereas Fey steps up to one of her first leading roles fairly well. The direction is smooth and Levy clearly knows how to handle his actors as well as the camera.

The script is fairly decent. There are several good moments of originality. It’s funny and it has some emotional impact as well. And with impressive support from Mila Kunis and Mark Wahlberg it’s testimony to the pulling power within Hollywood that director Levy must have to have been able to put together such an impressive cast.

Date Night looks great on blu-ray. Colours are bright and deep and the picture is clear and sharp throughout.

Make it Date Night tonight.

Author : Kevin Stanley