"Baby Mama" Just Wasn't

Genres: Comedy
Release Date: April 25th, 2008 (wide)
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, language and a drug reference.
Distributors: Universal Pictures Distribution

Directed by: Michael McCullers

JJ Rating: B-

Kate (Tina Fey) wants her baby. Her plumbing says no. So she gets a surrogate mother by the name of Angie (Amy Poehler) and the oddness begins. Baby Mama.

Too long a comedy, again. Stick to the formula that works and don't exceed the 1:30 mark. It's hardly ever good and defiantly this weekend it was not even close to good.

Baby Mama was trying to have charm and I just didn't feel it. The chemistry between Tina Fey and Amy Poehler was there but it wasn't. It was like frayed electrical wire. The energy goes through but not enough because it gets lost along the way. This goes for like everyone in the entire film. Dax Shepard, Greg Kinnear and Steve Martin just didn't connect well with the entire movie or with each other. Their acting was good but the chemistry and connection was just misfire. Sigourney Weaver was a pleasant surprise. Whenever I think of this movie I'll remember her role as Chaffee Bicknell more than anything else about the film. She was just perfect in a whole realm of missed matched puzzle pieces.

There were, of course, funny moments. I believe the funny moments I loved happened with Weaver's scenes. There were a couple that were funny with Fey and Poehler, which is good, right, because they make up the majority of the film. There was nothing out right funny that had me rolling on the nasty, gross movie floor.

There is this mediocre feel to the entire movie. Like it wanted to have heart and a touching moment while at the same time be funny, but because it didn't really go away from the safe middle, it dwelled and just settled for mediocre.

I want a comedy that's funny. That lasts only for an hour and half. That actually has humor that will withstand time and be worth the money that I shell out. It just didn't work out how I was hoping it would work out. There was a lot of revving (a word I should save for Speed Racer, huh? Ha) and not enough GOING. I don't like spending my entire movie experience waiting for the movie to get started.

Baby Mama was decent and I'm sure there will be lovers of the film. It had its moments of laughter but over all I'm sure it'll drop off into obscurity and when someone asks, later this year, "Did you see Baby Mama?" There will be enough people to state, "Who is in that?" to make my prediction correct. Baby Mama could have and should have been funnier, but it just wasn't.