‘Date Night’ – Fey and Carell run from thugs, action comedy cliches

All Phil and Claire Foster want is a table at a trendy Manhattan restaurant.

Be careful what you wish for.

“Date Night” seems like more than movie fans could ask for, too. The film teams NBC’s sitcom king and queen Steve Carell and Tina Fey in an action comedy pairing the engaging comics at the hip.

And, for a while, the film is mature enough to let their singular skills click. But once The Formula kicks in – loud car chases, gun fights and other tired movie cliches, this “Date” loses its charm.

“Date Night” begins with surprising restraint for a mainstream comedy. No wacky set pieces. No contrived slapstick meant to kick-start our funny bones.

Phil and Claire (Carell and Fey) are planning a night out on the town, but they’re almost too exhausted to leave their house. News that two of their best friends, a long married couple, are separating coaxes them off the couch.

They don’t want to join them in divorce court.

But their fancy dinner plans hit a snag when the snooty maitre ‘d says all the tables are taken. So when a hostess yells out, “Tripplehorns, table for two,” they pounce.

That moment of spontaneity dooms their evening. A pair of crooked cops (Common, Jimmi Simpson) want the real Tripplehorns to cough up a secret flash drive, and now the Fosters must try to stay one step ahead of them while sorting out their marriage woes.

“Date Night” takes care to show how challenging even a happy marriage can be. Those early scenes, including a sharp sequence in which Phil and Claire’s nighttime rituals kill any chance at intimacy, is a smart snapshot of marriage too rarely seen on screen.

The barbs might hit too close to home for couples in the audience on their own date nights.

Once the mistaken identity kicks in, the laughs become more obvious, but also broader in execution. And with Fey and Carell hitting all their familiar tics, that’s hardly a criticism.

But the more complicated the mistaken identity story becomes, the more strained the comic set pieces.

“Date Night” drags in its final reel, even though it clocks in at just under 90 minutes. A few sequences, like when the Fosters are forced to concoct a sexy dance sequence to please a slimy politician, should have been dealt with via a comically abbreviated montage sequence. Instead, the gag goes on and on, and it becomes clear the screenplay has run out of gas.

The supporting players add more than a touch of class to the film, including Kristen Wiig as a happily liberated divorcee to William Fichtner hamming it up as a blowhard politician. Mark Wahlberg appears as an old client of Claire’s who just so happens to have a flotilla of spare cars and more high tech spy gadget than 007 at his disposal.

Do you think that will come in handy for the Fosters?

Fey looks fetching both in her cocktail dress, and later in a more revealing outfit. She seems less like a suburban drone and more like a movie star playing dress up.

Carell never sheds his Everyman shtick, and his obsession with the shirtless Wahlberg is the film’s best running gag.

The chemistry between Carell and Fey clicks on a comedic level, but the screenplay doesn’t let them breathe as an actual couple. There’s a lack of tension – and joy – in their scenes together, something that’s actually visible during the end credit outtakes.

“Date Night” hints at the potential of the Fey-Carell combo, but it can’t help but fall into formulaic action rather than focus on its dynamic duo.

(Photo: Tina Fey, Steve Carell and Mark Wahlberg try to figure out a plan in the action comedy “Date Night.”/20th Century Fox)