Image copyright © by Marcus Trahan

Date Night

(2010)

I don’t know why it’s so hard to make a good comedy these days. Maybe it’s just me, maybe I don’t like the stuff that appeals to younger people. Though I must say I can enjoy a modern gross-out comedy as much as the next person, as long as it has at least some elements that are original, and is funny. So I really value the ones I laugh at, and this is one. I don’t tout it as a classic or anything, it’s strictly standard fare, but I did laugh. The best running gag was when Tina Fey and Steve Carell, fed up with waiting for a seat at a fancy restaurant, decide to present themselves as the Tripplehorns, after the third or fourth call for that couple. Of course, mistaken identity ensues and they find themselves fleeing for their lives. But the great part is that later, several times, when trying to explain their predicament, other people stop their story and look at them like they are disgusting child molesters who have just admitted to buggering goats: “You took their reservation?” In New York, this is an unimaginable crime.