Tina Fey and Steve Carell’s Date Night took the top spot away from Clash of the Titans over the weekend, earning an estimated $27.1 million on the strength of solid reviews from critics who overwhelmingly called it, “Okay, I guess.”

Meanwhile, the critically-acclaimed How to Train Your Dragon rode Jay Baruchel’s nasally drone to a solid showing in number three with $25.3 million, and Tyler Perry’s latest half-assed Sunday-school lesson was a distant fourth, dropping like a rock, down 62% from its opening weekend showing for one of Tyler Perry’s steepest drops yet.  But hey, that’s why they’re called Lifetime movies of the week, right? And anyway, its $48 million gross so far is more than enough to earn back the 18 bucks they spent on it. Have you seen the poster?  Tyler Perry’s sporting that creepy grin because he’s thinking of the new muu muu he’s going to buy with all the money they saved  hiring the neighbor kid to Photoshop this thing.  And also because he’s a lunatic. Ten bucks says when he goes home, he puts on his Madea costume and molests himself.  

Elsewhere, Hot Tub Time Machine was all the way down at number seven, where its $36.9 million gross was just good enough to earn back its estimated production budget, but still a lot less than it deserves.  It was funny, dammit.  One slot higher than Bounty Hunter?  Did anyone even know that was still playing?  I’d say that I don’t want to live in a world where Bounty Hunter earns more than Hot Tub Time Machine, but the truth is, I don’t want people who see Bounty Hunter to live in a world where Bounty Hunter earns more than Hot Tub Time Machine.  That’s why I bought this blow torch.

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I love Tina Fey, even if she is a goody two shoes, ooh-look-at-me-I-don’t-do-drugs nerd.  And even though he’s burned us a couple times, I still give Steve Carell the benefit of the doubt.  That said, the first trailer for Date Night was about as funny as a hate crime (and I don’t mean the hilarious kind against clowns). Seriously, mother-in-law jokes?  What year is it?  Anyway, here’s what the early reviews have been saying.  Spoiler alert: they’re better than I expected.

Here’s proof that Tina Fey and Steve Carell could squeeze laughs out of a phone book. Josh Klausner’s script rivals the Yellow Pages for dry and utilitarian.And yet their teamwork turns it into comic bliss. – Peter Travers, Rolling Stone.

“Date Night” is a product substantially inferior to the material routinely finessed by Carell and Fey, on their respective hit shows, into comic gold. And yet “Date Night” gets by, almost despite itself, on the durability and wiles of its stars.  The people on-screen keep saving this one, none more so than James Franco and Mila Kunis. As lowlifes mixed up in the Tripplehorn saga, they give “Date Night” a shot in the arm, simply for the way Franco says the line, “Like I wanna spend the rest of my life selling stolen wheelchairs!” -Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune.

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I know this means I won’t get to sit at the cool kids table anymore, but I like Tina Fey and Steve Carell.  I love 30 Rock (as long as Kenneth or Judah Friedlander and his stupid effing hats aren’t on screen), I think her writing is spot-on 80% of the time, and Steve Carell is just one of those guys who’d have to try really hard to be unlikable.  So what happens when you put them both in the same movie?  Well, if it’s a Fox movie, it means you get mother-in-law jokes, people hitting their heads, and sound effects lifted from the wacky morning zoo. Oh yeah, it’s called Date Night.  It was directed by Night at the Museum‘s Shawn Levy, who usually makes kids’ movies, but lucky for him Fox execs can’t tell the difference. Oh hey look, they gave Olivia Munn a two-second cameo.  You know, I can think of a few good ways for Olivia Munn to spend a couple seconds.

(*bike horn*)

Our thoughts exactly, Olivia.  [available in HD at Apple]

After much anticipation and whining (mostly by me), Rickey Gervais’ The Invention of Lying finally has a trailer.  It’s set in a world where everyone tells the truth all the time, until Ricky Gervais accidentally invents lying.  It’s basically the opposite of Liar Liar.  Besides starring, Ricky Gervais also wrote and directed (with Matthew Robinson), and it co-stars Rob Lowe, Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Louis CK, Jeffrey Tambor, Christopher Guest… pretty much every comedy actor ever.  I looks promising.  Then again, I might just hold out for the American remake starring Steve Carrell and act surprised whenever anyone mentions this one, just to help hipsters feel more smug at cocktail parties.\

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It’s pretty well known that Tina Fey never talks about the little scar on her left cheek.  Luckily, she also has a husband who’s just happy when someone wants to talk to him. He recently revealed his wife’s scar origin in an interview with Vanity Fair:

Jeff Richmond says a stranger slashed Fey’s face when she was 5 years old.

The future TV star was playing in the front yard of her Upper Darby, Penn., home when a stranger approached the young Fey and violently cut her cheek.

Says Richmond: “That scar was fascinating to me. This is somebody who, no matter what it was, has gone through something. And I think it really informs the way she thinks about her life.” [AP]

Yeah, I can totally understand that.  It’s like when I was five and I pissed my pants on a field trip to the zoo, and to this day I still cry like a baby whenever I see zebra print.  That was also the year I stopped breastfeeding. I don’t really know where I was going with this, but if I had to choose someone on 30 Rock to get their face slashed, it’d definitely be Judah Friedlander.  He could wear a hat that says “OUCH MY FACE!”