Two of America's finest comedy actors join forces for an action-packed farce on a night they will never forget, writes TAMMY HUGHES

TINA Fey and Steve Carell's chemistry in Date Night is excellent. It is so good, you almost want them to get hitched in real life... that is, if their portrayal of painful married life wasn't so convincing.

Phil (Carell) and Claire Foster (Fey) are a sensible and loving couple who try to keep their marriage alive by going on a date once a week to a restaurant that makes Nando's look like cordon bleu.

When mutual friends decide to get divorced, the pair wake up to the fact that their weekly and ultimately sexless ritual is doing their own relationship no favours.

In a bid to spice things up, Claire buys a dress with a plunging neckline that so inspires Phil he whisks her away for a glamorous night out in Manhattan.

Disaster strikes, however, when they get to the Big Apple and try to get into a popular restaurant which is full. Undeterred they take another couple's dinner reservation - by pretending they are the Tripplehorns.

The pair are halfway through dinner when they are hauled out of the restaurant by two goons who assume they are the real Tripplehorns, a couple who have got into trouble with the wrong people.

In a classic case of mistaken identity, the Fosters are suddenly on the run from corrupt police for having stolen property from some very dangerous characters.

I was so happy watching their awkward married life with morbid fascination that I probably could have lived without this thrilling turn of events.

In fact, I thought that one particular scene where the Fosters are involved in a high-speed car chase through New York dragged a bit.

However, I did like the fact that Fey and Carrell were such a convincing married couple throughout the film.

The dynamic duo stay hilariously and resolutely in character as a typical husband and wife from New Jersey throughout their crazy, action-packed adventure.

I can only hope they do more work together, as their understated comic styles mesh perfectly.