Baby Mama
Description
Comedic geniuses Tina Fey (30 Rock, Saturday Night Live) and Amy Poehler (Saturday Night Live) team up to celebrate a modern twist on motherhood! Kate (Fey) is a single, successful career woman who wants something more: a baby. But she gets more than she bargained for when she hires Angie (Poehler), a free spirit from South Philly, to be her surrogate in a hysterical mama match-up. From birth class to baby-proofing, they’re the ultimate odd couple that critics are c… More >>
I watched this lastnight (thank gosh it was a redbox for a dollar) I thought it would so much more funny and it was awful. The story itself was good but just not funny.
Rating: 1 / 5
Not sure why I would think that a film called Baby Mama would be thoughtfully entertaining. I don’t know. I guess was under the impression that Tina Fey is smart and witty (maybe she really can only make this work in television time) and BC graduate Amy Poehler can add a savvy spin to material. The film has a few chuckles but quickly steers itself straight into the safe funny zone. The stereotypically safe funny zone. You know women single and over 35 must be super successful “career women” and have given up on any sort of social life. All women want children. The whole infertility thing is just hysterical and so is pregnancy and giving birth, while we think of it. The jokes are so tired. And you’ve seen them before. I’m not a major fan of 30 Rock but I’ve enjoyed some of the episodes and thought Tina Fey might be a little different. She does make the successful single woman stylish at times on that show. Though even there you see the jokes from Alec Baldwin about her being a lesbian because she’s wearing pants or because she’s over 30 and single. Oh, it’s OVER honey.
I like to think that I’ve been picky. I have a brain. I have a heart. I use both in making my decisions. Sure, sometimes I want a guy to be there for me all the time but why do I feel like a failure at times because there isn’t one? I have never had any male friends say that they don’t expect to meet anyone or that they’ve “given up on dating.” No, it’s only my girlfriends who have careers. The ones who have families have already had the boyfriend/husband. I’ve been doing what I want to do for the past decade and not had to decide what someone else thinks. Not everyone needs to be part of a couple or to have a family to be considered successful. Oh, I’m joking. Of course you have to check all those things off your list or you’re a real loser. Who doesn’t know that? I spend enough time in therapy. And I’m being so sarcastic, in case you didn’t figure it out. Yet sadly our American society does think that these are the things a woman must do. She has to have the career, marriage and family or there’s just something off, something wrong, something, oh horrors, different about her.
Rating: 1 / 5
Beware!!!!!!! The money grubbing scum who produced the movie have put some kind of copy protection on the disc which makes it unplayable on Media Center PCs with Blu-Ray disc players. I returned it and got my money back, but I’m just trying to save you the trouble of having to do the same.
Rating: 1 / 5
I love these two but this is absolutely awful. Acting is flat and jokes are obvious. Unfunny.
Rating: 1 / 5
If there’s been a trend in Hollywood, it’s been the desire to have and keep babies. `Knocked Up (Unrated Full Screen Edition),’ `Bella,’ and `Juno (Single-Disc Edition)’ were a part of that trend last year.
This time it’s the turn of yupwardly mobile single mother, Kate (Tina Fey). She has it all, even if she hasn’t found or kept Mr. Right. She’s been promoted to Vice President of Development of Round Earth Food Stores, an organic health food grocery chain. Barry (Steve Martin) her boss, is a New Age hippie entrepreneur who makes every decision by meditative vibes.
Her salary makes most things affordable, so when she has a yen to have a baby, she goes looking at every angle: a sperm bank, a boyfriend, etc. until she hears the bad news that’s she’s almost 100% infertile.
Her solution is to do what most people in her shoes couldn’t afford: She’ll pay for a surrogate mother to carry one of her eggs, have it inseminated, and bring it to birth. The agency, Chaffee Bicknell, is headed by the ever-so-smooth Sigourney Weaver, who into her forties is a specimen of fertility herself.
Her perspective client is Angie (Amy Poehler), someone whose working class toughness excels–even if her intuitive sense is closer to Barry’s and keener than her street smarts. Her husband, Carl (Dax Shepard) is an inconsiderate and unfaithful slob. An inventor by trade, his idea of supplementing income is hounding the phone, so he can be the #107 caller for the next rock trivia question.
Eventually, complications will have Angie leaving Carl during her pregnancy and moving in with Kate with no where else to go. There are predictable clashes as Kate, a control freak, will have much to say about her prospective child’s diet and the surrogate mother’s lifestyle. Kate’s profession will make her dote on Angie eating organic pea soup; while Angie craves junk food. Obsessive-compulsive Kate will insist on subliminal foreign language tapes to rear the embryo on the fast track to success; while Angie roars out her favorite Karaoke songs and sing-a-long games. As you might expect the Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding/Diane Chambers-Karla Torelli match up will make some funny and some predictable situations.
On the periphery of Kate’s life are romantic opportunities with Junga Juice bar competitor, Rob Ackerman(Greg Kinnear) who offers some quality time as well as some pointed observations about what chain stores can do to small business owners.
I enjoyed the culture clash provided by Fey and Poehler, but felt the badly needed romance was a welcome respite from the strife found in the central conflict. Martin’s small role is refreshingly different from the protective father/hyperactive jerk he’s played in the past–even if his character seems a little creepy here. Sigourney Weaver is smooth and seasoned as the savvy, but sweet agency head who knows how to talk to adults like kindergarteners and get away with it.
Not all the humor is funny or subtle. “I’d rather be shot in the face than eat this stupid food!” shouts Angie when pressured to do things Kate’s way. Significantly, this is a ‘Saturday Night Live’ movie. (Fey, Poehler, Martin are in it, and Lorne Michaels is also the producer here.) While not always entertaining, the situations and characters are unique and fun enough to see at least once.
A J.P.’s Pick 2.5*’s = Fair
Rating: 3 / 5