Reel Critics:

“Date Night” reveals the best and worst of Hollywood’s romantic comedy formula. It has several laugh-out-loud scenes that focus on cutting-edge observations of modern life, love and big city madness. But it only manages to be mildly amusing through the rest of the frivolous screenplay.

Credit Tina Fey and Steve Carell for bringing snap and improvisation to the film’s best moments. They play a boring husband and wife from New Jersey trying to spice up their marriage with a hot date in Manhattan. They steal a reservation from a no-show couple at a trendy restaurant. But they soon discover that the people they replaced at the dinner table are being hunted by very bad guys with guns.

Absurd situations follow from this mistaken-identity premise. You normally don’t see insane car chases or bullets flying in these kinds of movies. But they play a major role here with increasing silliness evident as the action escalates. Mark Wahlberg is great as a buffed undercover operative. But overall, it’s a mixed bag where some scenes are very funny and some are very not.

Why did I see this movie?

Tyler Perry has created an entire industry unto himself with his hugely successful plays, TV shows and films centered around strong moral values. His messages are all about love.

But in “Why Did I Get Married Too?” we’re not feelin’ it. What starts out as four fabulous and mostly loving couples on a Bahamas vacation ends up an overwrought, overacted and underwritten melodrama.

Reprising their roles from Perry’s 2007 movie, wives Janet Jackson, Jill Scott, Sharon Leal, and especially Tasha Smith with her tiresome tirades, rarely give themselves a chance to exhale. The men’s main purpose is to be eye candy and provide some awkward tears and laughs that fall as flat as their abs.

There’s big drama when Ms. Jackson’s control busts loose as she busts up all the glass in her living room. I was more worried about her buttons putting someone’s eye out, but I digress.

The hysteria culminates in one unintentionally laughable hospital scene, but never fear. Within minutes, everything is bright and shiny again with the promise of happily ever after — and a third movie.

JOHN DEPKO is a Costa Mesa resident and a senior investigator for the Orange County public defender’s office. SUSANNE PEREZ lives in Costa Mesa and is an executive assistant for a financial services company.