Due Process: Date Night

Date Night's flaw is that it fails to fully capitalize on its greatest strengths: Tina Fey and Steve Carell. Putting too much emphasis on the ho-hum plot (a mistaken-identity caper wherein a bored married couple gets swept into a web of crime) and cartoonish stunts that take the focus off Fey and Carell, the movie slows down at the exact moments when it should be speeding up, leaving you to forget for 10-15 minutes at a time just how funny the leads are.

For example, director Shawn Levy makes interesting cinematographic choices in several scenes by playing up a dramatic style (ostensibly to emphasize the humor of the ridiculous situations). And while it's easy to admire Levy's attempts to drive comedy through a dramatic lens, his results dampen the mood and destroy the film's momentum. Watching Date Night in a theater packed with high-school students, I couldn't help but echo their ADHD sentiments during these frequent lulls in comedy.

But when they get the attention they deserve, Fey and Carell are hilarious. Without struggling to top each other as many short-term comedy duos do, each plays into the other's strengths to create some of the funniest moments I've seen in recent years. These laughs rarely stretch beyond a few seconds, though, and they show up inconsistently. Verdict: [B-]