Scarecrow suggests | Like 'Date Night'? Find more tales of harried marrieds on DVD

"Date Night" is a comedic tale of harried marrieds. For more in this vein, we suggest Neil Simon's "The Out-Of-Towners" (1970). Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis star as George and Gwen Kellerman, a couple from Ohio en route to George's potentially career-making job interview in New York City.

The comedy of errors begins when the plane is rerouted to Boston, the luggage (and spending money) goes missing, and the resulting delays cause the Kellermans' room at the prestigious Waldorf-Astoria to be given away.

George and Gwen are left to fend for themselves in a city crippled by transit, cab and sanitation-worker strikes. The disasters snowball as they're kidnapped, mugged, attacked by angry protesters and victim to numerous other catastrophes.

The 1999 remake starring Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn updates the fish-out-of-water scenario and features John Cleese as the prim and proper hotel manager.

The contents of four identical plaid overnight bags are the catalyst for madcap misunderstandings in Peter Bogdanovich's screwball comedy "What's Up Doc?" (1972).

One belongs to Howard Bannister (Ryan O'Neal), a music professor in town with his uptight fiancee (Madeline Kahn), seeking a grant to study how ancient man used rocks to make music; one's full of a rich lady's jewels; and one is carrying secret government documents that a mysterious Mr. Smith is threatening to expose to the world.

The last one belongs to bumbling free spirit Judy Maxwell (Barbra Streisand).

The hijinks ensue when the bags and their owners find themselves in a San Francisco hotel. Thieves make for the jewels, a mysterious Mr. Jones tries to get the papers and Judy sets her sights on Howard.

A switcheroo shell game unfolds, culminating in Howard and Judy being chased by the other interested parties around the city (and eventually its surrounding waterways) before all is straightened out and the new couple flies off into the sunset.

Bogdanovich's film is a fine homage to movies such as "Twentieth Century" (1934), "Ball of Fire" (1941) and "The Philadelphia Story" (1940) and is often listed with them among the great screwball comedies.

Blake Edwards' "Blind Date" (1987) tells another story of a date night gone horribly awry. Bruce Willis (in his first starring role) is warned before he goes on his blind date not to let the girl drink or she'll get "wild."

Not thinking wild to be a necessarily bad thing, he orders champagne for two and ends up losing his job, car and freedom due to Kim Basinger's extreme drunken behavior.

But things get turned on their head and somehow it turns into a love story.

If you prefer less romance in your "evening of escalating humorous horrors" movies, we recommend "Adventures in Babysitting" (1987).

When her best friend frantically calls from the Chicago bus station, Chris (Elizabeth Shue) gathers her charges, 10-year-old Sarah, her older brother Brad (who has a gigantic crush on Chris) and his best friend Daryl, and heads into the big city.

Soon the station wagon catches a flat and Chris realizes she doesn't have her purse, and a night of bullet dodging, gangster evading, blues singing, evil-boyfriend confronting and skyscraper scaling begins.

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