Movie Notes: Baby Mama

October 10th, 2008

= 3 stars

Starring Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Greg Kinnear
Directed by Michael McCullers

Synopsis

Single career woman Kate (Tina Fey) has neglected motherhood for too long. After learning of a fertility problem, she enlists Angie (Amy Poehler) to act as surrogate mother for her long-desired baby. Hilarity ensues.

The Good

• Amy Poehler steals the show through erratic behavior and some crazy expressions making her look like a cross-eyed doe stalking a leaf, or something. I laughed pretty hard when she plows through several packages of chocolate cakes, and transitions into a vomiting scene. Then there’s that olive oil.
• Tina Fey gets a pass despite often being dull and a bit too straight of a straight-woman. Her prissy, out of it character does get a few great lines however, like “My avatar is dressed like a whore!” and a ridiculous scene involving that sappy Chris De Burgh song.
• Fey and Poehler have great chemistry. I was kind of hoping they would… never mind.
• Predictable plot, but with enough daffiness sprinkled about that held my interest.

The Bad

• Most scenes are sort-of-funny, but-not-really. The punchlines seem just out of reach, such as when Steve Martin and Fey make eye contact for five minutes and, well, nothing all that funny happens. As a result, many of the pregnant jokes end up stillborn (did I just write that?).
• The rest of the cast sleepwalks: Greg Kinnear, Steve Martin, Sigourney Weaver, Maura Tierney, yeah, easy paycheck, hit snooze.

Conclusion

Baby Mama is a prime example of movie I’m glad we didn’t see in the theater, but as a rental, it was totally acceptable and a good deal in terms of the price to laughs ratio. I laughed out loud a few times, and whenever I got bored, I just imagined Fey as Sarah Palin. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

IMDB: Baby Mama
Wikipedia: Baby Mama
Rotten Tomatoes: Baby Mama 62%