Baby Mama
|
List Price: Our Price: $3.75 You Save: $11.23 (75%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Baby Mama
Movie Review: Great Movie, Great Price
Summary: 5 Stars
Very funny movie, at a great price. I was amazed that it arrived in only 3 days.Movie Review: Expecting it to be more edgy, but instead getting formula...
Summary: 4 Stars
Three and a half stars.
Tina Fey doesn't quite top my list of Hollywood hotties (declares the pig in me). What turns me on about her is her smarts, her wit and her sense of humor. I've geeked on her since her days in SNL, all the way to 30 ROCK and now to her theatrical releases. And is it too kinky to admit that her Sarah Palin impressions render her even more attractive? (dammit, it's too kinky, isn't it?) BABY MAMA is Fey's likable second feature film (after Mean Girls (Special Collector's Edition)), and it floats on the strength of Tina Fey's talents and her odd couple chemistry with Amy Poehler, also from Saturday Night Live. But, since it does feature Tina Fey, I expected something edgier. Instead BABY MAMA gives us formula.
Kate Holbrook (Fey) is a thriving, single career woman who, at the age of 37, suddenly gets the urge to have a baby. But when she finds out that she has a T-shaped uterus (apparently disastrous for conceiving), she resorts to a surrogate mother. Except that the baby mama the straight-laced Kate sets her eyes on is Angie (Poehler), a low income white trash girl. Uh oh. Then, it's just a matter of time before the film contrives a way to have Angie move in with Kate. Because we're about to venture into "Oh, snap!" territory.
After other films like Father of the Bride 2, Juno (Two-Disc Special Edition with Digital Copy) and Knocked Up (Unrated Widescreen Edition), BABY MAMA can't help but feel familiar, even if it does offer up a different perspective. The presence of both Fey and Poehler lends a singular SNL vibe to it all, although not so strong that it deters from the enjoyment of the movie. Michael McCullers's script goes for the big laughs, but also mines many opportunities for sentimentality.
The baby mama drama doesn't break new ground, but once you get over the disappointment of the picture's over-all blandness, you can sit back and soak it in. Fey and Poehler handle the dramatic elements with ease and warmth, and their contrasting personalities provide several good gags (I like what happens when Angie couldn't solve the locked toilet dilemma, and it's funny to me that the unhip Kate's entire arsenal of dance moves consists of framing her face over and over). One of Poehler's assets is this loose cannon energy she exudes and barely contains, and, here, it provides an effective synergy with Fey's more reserved core. Their culture clash scenes are fun to watch, specially when Tina puts on her appalled or bemused expression (which is often).
Poehler puts in enough work that you don't mind going thru that same old, same old. Her Angie starts out immature with horrible social manners, and her antics may make the more refined out there cringe. But she's not really meant to be an unlikable character. Gradually, Angie develops into a sympathetic woman-child.
The movie takes full advantage of Tina Fey's persona (I only wish she'd written this script). Fey has this ability to play it mousy and unassuming, yet at the same time be able to serve up her own digs. Not to mention, Fey can assume a harried mien like no one's business. No complaints about the supporting cast. Steve Martin enacts a health foods guru role and sports a ponytail wig. His character's a quirky sort, who rewards his minions with forehead-to-forehead bonding and with five minutes of uninterrupted eye contact. Sigourney Weaver runs a surrogacy center and it doesn't at all strike her character that it might tick off her clients when she blithely brags about her fertile body and constant state of pregnancy. Oh, Entitlement, thy name is Sigourney. Maura Tierney and Greg Kinnear show up but are underused. More relevant to the plot, Kinnear and Fey's romance needed more room to develop.
I might've laughed the loudest during the group therapy session, based solely on that one guy's line delivery regarding his dour Wiccan surrogate mom. I also like that the actor who plays the loser PC guy in all those PC/Mac tv commercials has a bit role. The dvd also comes with humorous audio commentary by writer/director Michael McCullers, producer Lorne Michaels, and a riffing Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.
BABY MAMA, bland but enjoyable, would've been vastly improved if Tina Fey had written the script. I was expecting even more barbed skewering of stuff, more wicked jabs at obssessive upward mobility and the self-absorbed yuppie lifestyle and all things New Agey. Instead, what we get is bland.
Movie Review: Every Female Fan Of Comedy Needs To Thank Tina Fey....
Summary: 4 Stars
Normally I run as far as possible from any film described as both "female" and "comedic". To quote the late great John Belushi, "Chicks aren't funny". And 9 outta 10 times I gotta agree with him. But there is just something about Tina Fey. Is it that she's hot while humorous? No, that's not it. Or maybe because unlike every other female comedian, she doesn't tell jokes about how bad her boyfriend is or how it sucks to have a period? Nope, she at times goes there too. So what is it about her?
To put it simply, it's her timing. Along with the ability to write her own material without a man to spell it out for her, she has one of the most endearing ways to speak-out those typical lines, making anything she says to be ironicly funny no matter what the content. It's no wonder her NBC sitcom 30 Rock has been showered in Emmy's, including the words of it's male lead, completely written from her female mind. This is one lady twenty years from now could be placed next to Lucille Ball and Roseanne Barr as one of the Comedy Queens of all time.
So now we have her first starring role in Baby Mama. It's what you'd expect from her, much like her 30 Rock character, of a late 30-something trying to make it in a crazy-filled world. But instead of a television show scenerio, this time she's trying to have a child while realizing that in order to do so because of her dreaded T-shaped uterus, a surrogate mother will be needed. Now don't get me wrong, her character is exactly like Liz Lemon going as far as wondering just when Alec Baldwin was going to pop his head in. But again, it's her lines and delivery that make this typical lighthearted comedy worth watching. Fellow SNL cast member Amy Poehler plays a decent underprivileged not-so-bright bun-carrier, though at times she seems a little too old to play the part, but does very well in bouncing off Tina's reactions. In fact, the film also has a great and capable supporting cast featuring Sigourney Weaver, Steve Martin, Dax Shepard, and in one of his most likable parts in quite awhile, Greg Kinnear. And even when you think you figured out how the whole movie's gonna be ten minutes in, it throws you a curveball that you didn't think the movie had in it. This is the type of film that both parts of a couple can enjoy without the male involved looking for a reason to leave the room. Funny, but smart. Goofy, but fresh. Laughs without the eye rolling. And also all things said that relate to Tina Fey as well.
The DVD presentation is typical: a two-sided, single layer each disc with a few extras on each side with decent picture/bit rate/audio. Not that this film will make you think you've found one of the best female buddy pictures of all time, but it won't make you want to turn on Nascar immediately to redeem yourself either. Tina Fey might be one of the best things to happen to female comedy in a long, long time. Let's hope that unlike alot of her gender peers, she only gets even better with age.
(RedSabbath Rating:8.0/10)
Movie Review: It may not be as smart as it thinks it is, but it's a lot funnier than you'd expect...
Summary: 4 Stars
I may be a little bias going into this, since I personally find Amy Poehler to be one of the funniest comedic actresses working today, but I honestly loved this movie. My wife and I are huge fans of these two SNL girls, and so we were very anxious to see this movie, and I have to say that it did not fail to keep me entertained. Yes, `Baby Mama' lived up to my every expectation; and while the film tries at times to be more than it needs to be it still manages to be every bit as funny as it claims to be.
The film tells us of single middle-aged Kate who is a successful businesswoman deprived of the life she's always wanted because she was so determined to get to the top before she started a family. Now, she's well into her thirties and is feeling that sharp kick in her stomach where her unborn child should be. Despite the fact that she is single and has no man in mind to father this child she decides that now is the best time to have that baby. When adoption and artificial insemination prove themselves `not happening' she turns to Chaffee Bicknell and her surrogate service.
Enter Angie Ostrowiski.
Angie wants Kate to put her baby inside her, and so she does. No sooner can Angie say "I'm pregnant" and Kate's world is tossed upside down when Angie shows up on her doorstep, homeless after a breakup with her common-law husband Carl. Kate is at first excited and then devastated as she realizes that adjusting to Angie is possibly harder than adjusting to a newborn.
The film is hilarious from start to finish, thanks in large part to the undeniable chemistry between Poehler and Fey. Both of them have different yet complimentary styles of comedy, and so they work so well with and off each other that they carry this film scene after scene. But not only can they work off one another, but they work off the rest of the cast in various ways. Fey's romantic relationship with Kinnear is not only believable, it is touching and sweet; and Poehler's knock down drag out relationship with Shepard is hilarious. Fey also has a great vibe going with Steve Martin, who plays her eccentric boss Barry. Fey understands how to play uncomfortable without being awkward. Sigourney Weaver is priceless as Chaffee and Romany Malco has some very touching moments with Poehler.
Sure, the film tries at times to deliver a message and it doesn't quite manage to bring that message to fruition, but it doesn't really matter. First and foremost this is a comedy, and as that it soars. You might want to wear an extra pair of underwear for this one; because when it hits it hits hard.
Movie Review: The Funny Lady
Summary: 4 Stars
My daughter was home from college, celebrating her birthday over the holidays. She asked me to pick up "Baby Mama" for the party. I probably wouldn't have rented the movie otherwise. Although I decided not to crash a party of giggling girls, I watched the film before I had to return it. I'm glad I did. At first, I wanted to roll my eyes in disdain with the low-brow humor like Angie Ostrowiski crouching in a sink to relieve herself. But eventually, I found myself laughing out loud.
Saturday Night Live's Amy Poehler was the funny lady in this film. As the uneducated crass Angie, Poehler pulled out all the stops. Equally as wonderful was Tina Fey as Kate Holbrook who played Felix to Poehler's Oscar in this odd couple match. After being named entertainer of the year for her Sarah Palin characterization + her Golden Globe & Screen Actors Guild award as Best Actress in a TV series for "30 Rock," Fey plays a totally different woman, Kate Holbrook, the overly organized executive able to handle the strangest of bosses, Steve Martin's new age executive Barry.
Michael McCullers who was the screenwriter for "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" has his directorial debut with this film. He lets the supporting characters shine. Holland Taylor who has twice been nominated for Emmys for "Two and a Half Men" does a great job. Dax Shepard who I saw in Let's Go to Prison (Rated & Unrated Versions) plays a good lout as Angie's boyfriend. Greg Kinnear who was nominated for a supporting actor Oscar for "As Good As It Gets" back in 1997, plays the sympathetic boyfriend for Kate. Sigourney Weaver who won Golden Globes for "Gorillas in the Mist" & "Working Girl" plays the fertility businesswoman Chaffee Bicknell with a cold-blooded focus. Romany Malco does a great job as Oscar the bellboy, who gets in the middle of everybody's business. John Hodgman who has been on the "Daily Show" & numerous personal computer commercials has a funny cameo as a fertility specialist.
The most hilarious cameo is Siobhan Fallon-Hogar as the speech-impaired birthing teacher. While it's wrong to laugh at someone because of a disability, she plays the character with such conviction that I was hopelessly laughing in spite of myself.
"Baby Mama" succeeds as a comedy because of its funny script, good pacing, enough sentiment to make you care & excellent performances. Enjoy!