海角大神

海角大神 / Text

Despite its star-power, 鈥楲ate Night鈥 is only so-so

It's not a bad movie, but it's not a good one either: 鈥楲ate Night鈥 is stale, though Mindy Kaling and Emma Thompson give it their all.

By Peter Rainer , Film critic

It鈥檚 a good thing that Mindy Kaling and Emma Thompson are the stars of the mediocre 鈥淟ate Night,鈥 written by Kaling and directed by Nisha Ganatra, because without them, it would resemble nothing much more than a 鈥淒evil Wears Prada鈥 knockoff. 聽

Thompson plays a brittle veteran late-night talk show host with an all white male writing staff. She is coerced into hiring Kaling鈥檚 Molly Patel, who has no previous TV experience, as a 鈥渄iversity hire鈥 in order to boost ratings and counter her image as 鈥渁 woman who hates women.鈥 Kaling鈥檚 naive earnestness in the role is very winning, and Thompson makes her boss lady clich茅s seem almost fresh. Not quite fresh enough, though, to rescue the movie.聽Grade: B- (Rated R.)