Date Night

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Plot: Boring New Jersey couple Phil and Claire Foster (Steve Carell and Tina Fey) go out to dinner and are mistaken for criminals by corrupt cops. They are chased around town until they make a bizarre plan to save themselves.

Review: The is a smart comedy with many good laughs -- most of the laughs are about anatomy and sex with a few pointed jabs at suburban married life. I really enjoyed watching Tina Fey, who was funny and likeable. Steve Carell has some good scenes, but too many are the kind of cringe-worthy scenes where I can hardly bare to watch.

There is one car chase scene that is creative and funny.

Cast: Tina Fey, Steve Carell

Directed by: Shawn Levy

Rating: 2.5 flasks; almost three stars.


More: Tina Fey mostly plays single women, so it is interesting to see her take on married women -- as she is married herself.

Even more: I saw this movie with my wife, does that make it a date night? She did not like it. So the satire about suburban married women did not work, at least with her, although she said it was the over-abundance of sex jokes she disliked.

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Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

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Plot: Joel (Jim Carrey) calls in sick and goes to the beach on a cool day to relax. There he meets Clementine (Kate Winslet), and they become friends. They spend some time together, but then Clementine forgets all about him, and Joel finds that she had her memories erased. Joel decides the only way he can live is if he also erases his memories. There are strange interior dream scenes where Clementine's memory runs from image to image in Joel's head.


Review: I saw this movie when it was new, but I was jetlagged, and slept through most of it. Wife Jenny read a review that claimed this movie has metaphysical insights, so we got it at the library.


I was looking for a DEEP HIDDEN MEANING, but I have decided that the most important meaning is the superficial one, which is that forgetting about the past can romantic relationships better. This is opposite of Freudian fixation on the past.


During the film, I was convinced that Joel (Jim Carrey) was insane, and all the characters were made up by his insane mind. Clementine (Kate) is a schizophrenic personality that the doctor is trying to disappear. The director does not end the film in a way that is compatible with that interpretation.


Jim Carrey give a competent performance. Kate Winslet had some moments early in the movie, but generally her character was so disjointed it was hard for her to have authentic emotion. The minor characters were strange enough to be interesting, and that contributed to the overall strangeness.


Cast: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet


Directed by: Micheal Gondry


Rating: 3 flasks - It is not very fun to watch. I has some internal puzzles in it that keep you going, and it (may) take on substantial issues. Probably deserves a 2.5



More: I prefer to think there was a non-Hollywood ending on the cutting room floor somewhere, where Joel simply forgets Clementine, and the movie ends. Not very happy but artistically authentic.

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