First Date

First Date feels like a throwback caper to something you'd find on cable, funny yet full of action with a generous helping of a timeless romance for good measure. It’s the kind of movie you come across and have to see how it ends.

Despite clearly aiming to craft an intentional aesthetic, writer/director duo Manuel Crosby and Darren Knapp’s film is inundated with tributes to irreverent indie crime film staples without bothering to carve out a unique voice of its own.

There’s a beating heart at the center of First Date, but unfortunately, the movie is less interested in exploring that central relationship and more amused with its zany cast of idiotic supporting characters. Good pacing can only get you so far.

First Date is a very ambitious independent film with a charming, casual attitude.

While the two young thesps acquit themselves nicely, much around them conspires to prevent their debut from being a memorable one.

The shadow of Risky Business looms large, and distractingly, over Manuel Crosby and Darren Knapp’s film.

More concerned with paying homage to ’90s-era Quentin Tarantino than telling a contemporary coming-of-age tale with believable stakes, co-helmers Manuel Crosby and Darren Knapp’s debut feature First Date saddles a young couple not with a romantic night out, but with a haphazard all-nighter crime-comedy that’s mostly unfunny and free of convincing suspense.