Date Night (C-)

(Rated PG-13 for crude & sexual content throughout, profanity, some drug activity, some violence):  It didn't take five minutes to recognize the formula for this flick - another one of those "comedies" that relies far too heavily on crudity & sexual innuendo than the kind of humor traditionally featured in screwball comedies.

Based on his own life habit - dining out periodically with his wife for a routine meal at a fancy restaurant - director Shawn Levy concocted this story about a similar couple doing the same, but finding themselves caught up in a situation in which they liven up their boring existence by leaving their suburban inertia for a night in Gotham, but which turns into a nightmare of confused identities, a tangling with nefarious hoods, blackmail and more, before their humdrum lives become enlivened by their unexpected night of slapstick mayhem & car chases.

The script by Josh Klausner seems more a storyboard that is expected to shine with a talented cast (headed by Tina Fey & Steve Carrell and underused Maark Wahlberg, James Franco, Mila Kunis, Mark Ruffalo, Kristen Wiig, Ray Liotta).  It doesn't.  In fact, the best of their repartee is obviously improvised, while Levy's penchant for wild & crazy antics work frantically to keep the plot moving at near breakneck pace.

Like so many of today's screwball comedies, it relies far more heavily on trimmings (a push-pull car/cab sequence among the best) than on the kind of mature ensemble writing/directing/acting that made Myrna Loy/William Powell or Spencer Tracy/Katharine Hepburn élan so rich in sophisticated humor.  Even the intrusion into cheap sex material and unnecessarily vulgar language cheapens what was clearly meant to be a 90-minute comedy for mid-aged retro lovers.  (Grade: C-)