Date Night

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

All the time Phil and Claire seem like the kind of people who don't belong in a screwball comedy. That's why it's funny. They're bewildered.

USA Today Claudia Puig

This is the rare screwball comedy that is superbly paced, cleverly plotted and hilarious from start to finish.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Regardless of the silliness of the situation -- or, in truth, because of it -- they're a joy to watch.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

In addition to Carell and Fey, Date Night boasts a deft supporting cast...Best of all are a very droll James Franco and Mila Kunis as the downtown hipsters for whom the Fosters are mistaken.

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

The movie knows enough, most of the time, to just let the funny people be funny.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Best of all, the filmmakers know when to pull the plug. Date Night clocks in at 88 minutes and would not have been as funny at 89.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

For this 21st-century Nick and Nora Charles, the flame is kept alive despite his nighttime anti-snore nose strip and her nighttime bite guard -- thanks to a shared appreciation of the hilarity of nose strips and bite guards.

The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck

These talented performers star in two of the wittiest, most sophisticated sitcoms on the air, but for this movie pairing they're stuck with an endlessly silly plot line and overblown physical mayhem that is instantly forgettable. The fact that they make it so funny nonetheless is a testament to their abilities.

Variety Lael Loewenstein

An uncommonly engaging date movie.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Watching these two intensely likable comedians work together is a special pleasure.

Slate Dana Stevens

It's cast, down to the smallest role, with genuinely funny performers, people who understand how to time a joke, deliver a setup, underplay a deadpan glance.

Time Mary Pols

It's a lively, often astute piece of marital sociology wrapped up in an action frolic involving an extremely average New Jersey couple.

NPR Linda Holmes

Date Night isn't great; it's not really going for "great." But it's a well-executed comedy with a warm but not cloying center.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

There’s something genuine and more than a little sad at the core of Levy’s poorly staged, modestly amusing comedy, but it isn’t the part that involves flash drives, blackmail, and glowering, gun-toting bad guys.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Date Night is a product substantially inferior to the material routinely finessed by Carell and Fey, on their respective hit shows, into comic gold.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

No one is going to remember the movie in a month, but for Mommies and Daddies seeking a night's break from their children, it's adequate entertainment.

Orlando Sentinel Roger Moore

Fey flirts and Carell kvetches, Walhberg goes shirtless and Liotta eats Italian. No surprises there. What really clicks is the couple at the core.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Basically a PG-13 version of “After Hours,” with more than a bit of “The Out-of-Towners” thrown in.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Stay for the outtakes – they’re improv delights, suggesting the movie that might have been if they had just left it all to Carell and Fey.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Once the guns come out, and the car crashes begin, Date Night loses the funny.

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

The trouble is, too much of director Shawn Levy's '80s-ish lark is filled with noise, when it really needed more quietly silly stuff.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

All this is good as far as it goes, but the problem is the good parts don't last long enough.

Salon.com Mary Elizabeth Williams

As a pleasant domestic comedy/action-adventure that, refreshingly, doesn't seem to hate its characters, Date Night is just fine. But is it good enough to merit hiring a baby sitter? I'd rather have some potato skins at the Teaneck Tavern.

Time Out New York Joshua Rothkopf

It makes you laugh in fits and starts, but more often it feels toothless and exhausted, the kind of project that exists to give Ray Liotta work.

Arizona Republic Bill Goodykoontz

It's an uneven proposition, veering wildly from genuinely funny scenes directly into ridiculousness and back again. But every time Shawn Levy's movie makes that journey, it's harder to get back on solid footing.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Movies are the lesser medium for Fey and Carell. They’re the stars of two relatively sophisticated, media-savvy network sitcoms, yet their big-screen comedies are retro.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Director Shawn Levy delivers his usual middle-of-the-road product.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Joe Williams

This shrill caper is more like a blind date between fingernail and chalkboard.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Date Night manages to live down to its store-brand title.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

All that starring talent isn’t exactly wasted here; it’s just diluted, watered down enough to demote “really funny” to sort of funny, now and then, here and there, some of the time. Hey, it’s the movie biz.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Date Night, like so many other films of its type, too often relies on words, catchphrases and inflections that signify a generally accepted notion of funniness rather than being, you know, actually funny.

St. Petersburg Times Steve Persall

Date Night is really just another example of what happens when funny sitcom stars are lumped together in a movie, believing that laughter exponentially increases with screen size.

Village Voice Karina Longworth

A jumble of genres, tones, and styles, Date Night ultimately strains to be a serious movie about marriage, with one joke: that, even when surrounded by excitement, Claire and Phil revert to being dull. But in practice, their dullness is just dull.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Never breaks out of its dullsville rut.

The New Yorker David Denby

A clunky and obvious comedy.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Why are Steve Carell and Tina Fey wasting their time, and ours, by appearing in the miserable comedy Date Night?

Boxoffice Magazine Wade Major

A broadly promising premise and well-matched stars prove no match for an abominably unfunny screenplay and the work of the poisonously untalented Shawn Levy--arguably the worst director making big-budget studio films today.