Baby Mama

When I first saw the trailer for Baby Mama, I just thought this movie was going to be a total disaster, it didn't look funny and like another typical chick flick. But my friends wanted to see it, so we saw it opening weekend, and actually I was surprised, I did like a lot better than what I was expecting. Baby Mama is something that looks like from the Lifetime Network, but it's all good, it has some really funny moments and was just cute. Amy Poehler and Tina Fey are two very funny women from Saturday Night Live, they also did Mean Girls together and made their characters an absolute joy to watch, so seeing them as the leads in this film was going to be an interesting turn. Tina Fey definitely has a lot of talent not only as a writer, but as an actress, she made her character believable and as neuritic as she was, she was still likable. Amy Poehler made her character a little too SNL at times, but these girls made the movie enjoyable and a fun flick to watch for the afternoon.

Kate is a single and successful woman who seems to have it all in life, but one thing she wants so bad is a baby. But one problem, her uterus isn't liked by her doctor, in other words, she has a one in a million chance of getting pregnant. After adoption woes and sperm donor failures, she decides to get a sergeant mother who will get pregnant and give her a child. She meets white trash couple, Angie and Carl. Angie moves into Kate's apartment after her break up with Carl, so this "odd couple" has to teach each other some new moves in life.

Baby Mama is actually worth the watch, I was very impressed with how much I liked it, like I said, from the trailer, it doesn't seem like a good movie, but when you watch it, you get the laughs and the smiles that the movie promises. It is a chick flick, warning to people who have a strong hatred for them, but I'm not a fan of chick flicks, and you know what? I thought that this was just a fun movie that if you let go and even enjoy the predictability, you'll find yourself loving Baby Mama.

7/10

"They're borrowing one tiny little egg and some space." Donna Regan, surrogate mother

When a woman is 37, generating a baby before the alarm goes off is no laughing matter. Yet first-time helmer Michael McCullers makes an amusing, sometimes poignant rom-com out of not-quite-Judd-Apatow (Knocked Up) wit, but spot on one-liners about the insane race. (Kate Holbrook: What you eat, the baby eats. What you listen to, the baby listens to. Oscar: If you listen to DMX, the baby comes out going' "Ennngghhh!") The film is helped by some fine performances, notably Tina Fey's understated, distraught exec, Kate; Amy Poehler's wired, white-trash surrogate, Angie; and Steve Martin's New-Age entrepreneur, Barry, reminding me of how intelligently Martin can spoof anyone, even himself. But it's the script that rules, taking even the interesting mid-life-crises comedies of the last few years (40 year Old Virgin comes immediately to mind) to a new level of un-hyped reflections about parenting and careers, love and lust, among others.

Kate's meteoric rise in Barry's Whole-Foods-like company is never savaged for leaving her late to the baby business; it is rather a trade-off treated as reasonable that now must be factored in the decision to have a baby before 40 or whenever.

Even fertility, or its enhancement, gets its comeuppance with Sigourney Weaver's smarmy, smug surrogate agency head (remember her Katherine in Working Girl). In other words, while the odd-couple cliché of Kate and Angie, polar opposites, living together is unabashedly mined, the SNL and 30 Rock insights are in tact, flat at times, but overall bright commentary on a complicated contemporary situation that is both serious and funny.

The ending is the only authentic failure of the film—it's unimaginative writing is married to a Hollywood-enforced good feeling out of synch with the untidy enterprise of surrogate mothering and romantic fulfilling. In other words, because the ending is too pat and unbelievable, a surrogate writer should have been commissioned.

Fey and Poehler were the 'Saturday Night Live' dream team. Consistently witty and constantly hilarious. But these results are usually produced when they are performing their own writing. McCullers, mostly of 'Austin Powers' fame, unfortunately places too many restraints on these two leads that consequently hold the overall comedy back, despite its sweet lighthearted tone. A single businesswoman, who mostly puts her career before her personal life, desires to conceive a baby but is unable to due to certain complications. She then proceeds to go down the surrogacy route and forces her lifestyle choices upon the surrogate mother.

"I don't like your uterus, I really don't like your uterus". It's a warm tale on motherhood, executed at such a pedestrian pace that it's as if McCullers, who opted to direct this also, was imitating a baby's first steps. It's slow, mostly wobbly, but you can't help but smile at the effort put in. Fey and Poehler emit their natural chemistry once again, and it truly is infectious. The supporting cast also had a few humorous moments, especially the legend that is Weaver who only has to smile and I'm laughing hysterically. Unfortunately the material that out leads are given prevents them from showing their true comedic talents. Rarely did I snigger let alone laugh, which is a dire shame considering my adoration for the SNL dream team. McCullers approach to the idea of surrogacy was naively basic, and it's because of this that the film ultimately felt underwhelming.

The dialogue between them surprisingly lacked personality, conforming to predictable clichéd traits for each character. It probably doesn't help that I dislike babies/infants/most small humans, so shoving a dozen of them in my face almost immediately was probably an indicator. Still, its light endeavours into surrogacy using two of my favourite comedians made for a watchable yet forgettable "comedy" that was absent of laughs. Needed Weaver to release her inner Ripley, then we have a film worth investing in!

Due to my love of Tina Fey I went out of my way to see this film at the cinema; on first release it was only shown at 11-30 in the morning and I dragged my mum to watch in an empty theatre. All I can say is that it was worth the effort.

The two leads bounce off of one another with brilliant comic timing, and both manage to make their flawed characters utterly likable. Yes, the plot is predictable, and no, there is no joke that made me fall out of my seat. However, it did deliver on many levels. The comedy was sharp and although the ending was a little contrived it did manage to put a goofy smile on the face of a cynical teenager, IE moi. 'Baby Mama' is perfect chick fare, and I am disappointed in the cinemas who have cleared all their screens in preparation for the release of 'The Dark Knight'.

Poehler and Fey sparkled and were supported by an excellent cast; Steve Martin was odd, providing some light comedy, but it was Sigourney Weaver and Greg Kinnear (back on form and looking less haggard) whom i felt really carried the film in the absence of the two leads.

Baby Mama was refreshing and a great indication that we should see more of these two girls on the big screen.

4/5 Stars

There weren't too many people hotter than Tina Fey in 2008. Between the smash comedy 30 Rock, her impression of GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, and taking the lead for the first time in a movie with "Baby Mama," Fey and her iconic black-rimmed glasses have soared above and beyond Saturday Night Live. While the film "Baby Mama" might not be her most notable exploit, it's brand of subtle humor works in her favor and makes for an enjoyable film.

Fey plays Kate, a late thirties (her true age) businesswoman who has never been married and is also incapable of conceiving a child though she desperately wants one. When Kate stumbles across an agency specializing in surrogate pregnancy, she meets Angie, a high school dropout played by SNL's Amy Poehler, and the two agree that Angie will have Kate's baby. When Angie's trash boyfriend Carl (Dax Shepard) cheats on her, she moves in with Kate and the two have to reconcile their conflicting lifestyles.

Though Fey carries her own comedic presence in her reactions to the bizarre characters around her, it's Poehler's character that is meant to serve as comic relief in her mis-educated habits in life and in pregnancy. She provides a variety of physical humor and also gets some laughs at her character for her sheer ignorance, though it's pretty hit-or-miss with her. While in a lot of her work she can come off as annoying, she's a bit more mild in this film.

The rest of a cast is full of high profile actors in smaller roles and other familiar faces to boost the unproven star power of Fey and Poehler. Greg Kinnear plays Fey's love interest, who is just supposed to be a "nice guy" and nothing more and Maura Tierney of "ER" plays Fey's sister. Top that off with appearances by Steve Martin as Fey's zen/hippie boss and Sigourney Weaver as the head of the surrogate agency and there's plenty of time for "look who it is!" amazement as you watch.

"Baby Mama" doesn't throw anything unusual at us from a comedy stand point, especially being released not even a year after Judd Apatow's "Knocked Up" provided a similar concept, but it has its own subtle, very SNL-like comedic style. That might be easy to say because Fey, Poehler and creator Michael McCullers connections to the show, but like SNL sketches, "Baby Mama" relies on the talents of its actors in creating nutty characters and the way the "normal" characters perceive them. While this doesn't work all the time, it gets better toward the end and the plot keeps you interested enough to wear you certainly don't dismiss it and you may even really like it.