Date Night - B+

In theaters. Rated PG-13, 88 minutes. Trailer.

A well-adjusted, successful married couple with children tries to liven up their regularly scheduled date night by going into Manhattan. After they take someone else's reservation at a trendy restaurant, they suffer a case of mistaken identity and it leads them on an unbelievably eventful and dangerous night. Even with stars like Tina Fey, Steve Carrell and Mark Wahlberg, I was skeptical going into this one. The premises is pretty dumb and nonsensical, but it ends up providing a serviceable vehicle for a steady stream of laughs. Click below for more DN:

Carrell and Fey have good chemistry and they do a good job of carrying the formulaic comedy with a 'message' about marriage. The jokes about children and married life work great and their interactions with the different characters in their adventure are universally good, especially the sequences with Wahlberg. Carrell's running gag with him about putting on a shirt are really funny. I thought the stick it out with marriage message was really good even though it was pretty simplistic.

The film is probably just a B for single people, but for those married couples with kids, this one is a bullseye. You'll laugh hard the whole time.
One reason I like Tina Fey so much is that projects she is involved in typically glorify responsible people and make fun of idiots - pretty much the opposite of all other entertainment. In this film the responsible married couple are the heroes, and those with the tattoos and making bad choices are called out for the same. A shockingly conservative film.