Date night

Can a pair of good TV jokers produce a movie ace? Steve (Daily Show, The Office) Carell and Tina (SNL, 30 Rock) Fey are veterans of the small screen, and Hollywood's hope to turn them into a big-screen box-office duo depended on audience reactions to Date Night. The critics were certainly kind, with 135 positive Rotten Tomatoes reviews (66%, of 201). Too kind.

Next time, if Carell and Fey give themselves the time, they'll want to change their writer (Josh Klausner, whose slim track record includes 4th Floor and Shrek Forever After) and their director (Shawn Levy, whose much longer CV includes Pink Panther and Night at the Museum).

The stars are a New Jersey married couple with two spoilt brats. They give themselves a regular night out for a dinner date, always get back home to the babysitter before 9.30pm, and get their kicks from guessing what lives and/or conversations fellow-diners are having. When he senses their mutual tedium, Carrel takes Fey uptown to a fashionable restaurant and grabs an unclaimed table reservation. The identities they've borrowed get them into trouble with cops, gangsters and corrupt politicos, providing excuses for two handfuls of cameo roles.

Out-takes during the end credits show that Carrel and Fey had great fun ad libbing and corpseing on sets, to the obvious irritation of some of the guest stars portraying cliched comic characters (who include Mark Wahlberg, James Franco, Mark Ruffalo, Ray Liotta). The ad libs (if they were not scripted) suggest that Fey is as quick-witted as her Sarah Palin performances suggested, and that Carrel is a natural bumbler of some charm and little comic genius.

They'll never be a Tracy and Hepburn or Lucy and Desi. I'd sooner be able to watch a sequel to the smart and fun-filled True Lies of Arnie and Jamie Lee Curtis as a comic action couple. Yet this lack-lustre effort earned close to US$100 million at the North American box office, so there will be another chance for them to appear together and shine.