Raise your hand if you think pairing Steve Carell and Tina Fey in a comedy is a bad idea.
No takers, right?
Yeah, that’s what the folks at 20th Century Fox thought, too, when they hired the duo to headline “Date Night,” opening April 9.
Their comic styles may not be perfectly in sync, but there’s something just … right about seeing them together on screen.
They’re TV actors who proved they can pick smart scripts when stepping up to the big screen.
“Date Night” casts them as a couple trying to recapture some romantic energy in their relationship. But a bad case of mistaken identity turns their plans upside down.
We’ll have to wait until the weekend to see if their pairing is as sound as advertised. But they wouldn’t be the first comid duo who clicked right out of the gate.
One that immediately comes to mind is casting John Candy and Steve Martin in “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” a precursor to the Bromance movement. Martin’s fussy demeanor proved the perfect match for Candy’s shlubby appeal.
It’s a shame they didn’t shoot more features before Candy’s tragic passing.
What other comic pairings clicked for WWTW readers … and why?
(Photo: In the midst of the date night from hell, Claire (Tina Fey) and Phil (Steve Carell) make a frantic call for help in the new comedy “Date Night.” Photo credit: Myles Aronowitz)
Note: You can follow What Would Toto Watch? on Twitter.
Related posts:
on 
on 
on 
on 
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Will Ferrell and Jon Heder were a surprisingly funny comedy duo in Blades of Glory. Heder has a certain innocence that helped rein in some of Ferrell’s more crass moments, and watching the two of them bicker like a couple of teenagers was hilarious.
Good choice … the material in “Glory” was weak but they made some laughs appear all the same.
The one that surprised me the most was Charles Grodin and Robert De Niro in “Midnight Run”. I wouldn’t have put them together in a movie, but somehow it worked.
Actually, I would have raised my hand if asked that question. For the life of me, I just don’t get the appeal of Tina Fey. I’ve always found her painfully unfunny and smug, to boot. I do like Steve Carrell, however.
Paula — I think Fey has shown great improvement as an actress. She does come across smug sometimes, but she really punctures that image on ‘30 Rock.” Her character … is pathetic!
+JMJ+
This pairing is really corny, but what the heck . . . (And besides, Mr. Toto, you did ask!
):
Bronson Pinchot and Mark Linn-Baker
Yes, they were “just” on TV and did mostly physical comedy . . . but oh, did they work well together!
I also like Ryan Stiles and Colin Mochrie. (Do they count if they do improv?)
Ryan and Colin could always be counted on to provide the lauhgs in Whose Line.
I would also add Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels in Dumb & Dumber. As actors they couldn’t be more different (they are practically the embodiment of extrovert and introvert), but they played off each other beautifully.
I actually thought Jeff Daniels was funnier than Carrey in that film, but you’re point is right on all the same! Surprised they never got paired up again …
I’ll second Grodin and DeNiro, partly because it seemed incongruous at the time (DeNiro hardly was the King of Comedy*), and partly because the film ages well as an entertaining buddy-comedy with actual laughs (and also because it reminds me that Brest once had a promising career).
Don’t see Carell and Fey clicking; Carell works best playing off of greater [when he's a supporting character] or lesser [when he's lead] male comic actors; unless Fey inhabits a gender-neutral similar role, I expect that the romantic pairing will undermine comic potential. A Cusack or a Curtis at their respective primes would be better choices, IMO.
D