Date Night

Sometime in the SCTV/Saturday Night Live/Kids in the Hall 1980s, it became accepted that all Canadians were funny. Ladies and gentlemen, the prosecution presents as evidence director/producer Shawn Levy, whose laugh-free comedic output since 2002 consists of Big Fat Liar, Just Married, Cheaper by the Dozen, The Pink Panther remake, both Night at the Museum movies, and the pilot episode of Pepper Dennis. As if to prove a point, Levy has now botched Date Night, a movie with likeable stars and a built-in audience brimming with good will. Steve Carell and Tina Fey, the anchors of the Thursday NBC lineup that is the bedrock of many a solid relationship, play a married couple mistaken for thieves wanted by the mob. This leads to a series of predictable antics that make you long for the relative verve and wit of Adventures in Babysitting.