a mild charmer, with a genial nature and a game cast.
Baby Mama (2008)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:153
Fresh:96
Rotten:57
Average Rating:6.2/10
Consensus: Baby Mama is a lightweight, predictable comedy that ekes by on the strength of its performers.
Rated: 12A [See Full Rating] for crude and sexual humor, language and a drug reference.
Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins
Genre: Comedies
Theatrical Release:25-07-2008
Synopsis: Most romantic couples--onscreen or otherwise--would kill for the type of chemistry that Tina Fey and Amy Poehler share in the gyno-centric comedy BABY MAMA, even though the women are only playing... Most romantic couples--onscreen or otherwise--would kill for the type of chemistry that Tina Fey and Amy Poehler share in the gyno-centric comedy BABY MAMA, even though the women are only playing friends. Fey stars as Kate, a 37-year-old vice president at an organic foods company whose womb starts a-kickin' every time she sees a baby. Though her career has kept her from marriage and children, she has decided that it's time for her to get pregnant. But multiple tries with in vitro fertilization leave her disappointed, and Kate turns to a surrogate mother. Enter Angie (Poehler), a high-school dropout desperate for the large check that comes with carrying someone's child. Though she agrees to be Kate's surrogate, it's clear that the women disagree on everything from music to the type of food Angie should be eating. When Angie leaves her apartment after a fight with her obnoxious common-law husband (Dax Shepard, EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH), she moves into Kate's posh Philadelphia apartment, and the women spend the rest of BABY MAMA alternately battling and bonding. Steve Martin appears in a small but enjoyable role as Kate's oily boss, and Oscar nominee Greg Kinnear gets good mileage out of playing her love interest. WEEDS star Romany Malco earns a bit more screen time--and plenty of laughs--as her over-involved doorman, but this is clearly Fey and Poehler's film. After several seasons of co-anchoring SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE's "Weekend Update" together, the pair is reunited, and it feels good--for both the talented actresses and the audience. BABY MAMA pays less attention to the serious issues of pregnancy and motherhood than its baby-driven contemporaries--JUNO, WAITRESS, and KNOCKED UP--but this is simply a comedy, and a very funny one, that succeeds on the merits of its two lead actresses and their comedic talents. [More]
Starring: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Greg Kinnear, Dax Shepard
Starring: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Greg Kinnear, Dax Shepard, Romany Malco, Maura Tierney, Holland Taylor, Sigourney Weaver, Steve Martin
Director: Michael McCullers
Director: Michael McCullers
Screenwriter: Michael McCullers
Producer: Lorne Michaels, John Goldwyn
Composer: Jeff Richmond
Studio: Universal Pictures
Reviews for Baby Mama
The picture's only weakness is that the pair's antics pale in comparison to those exhibited by the low-class trash you can find making fools of themselves any day of the week on the average episode of the Jerry Springer Show.
Even when we learn the film's somewhat less than astounding twist about midway through, the movie's happy outcome is never really in doubt.
I can't help but feel some sort of relief after the lukewarm trailers promised The Brothers Solomon with chicks.
Fey, in full, gorgeous fluster, and Poehler, a master of comic delirium, are nicely paired; and the script, by writer-director Michael McCullers (who toiled on the Austin Powers movies), gives them a sizable number of killer lines to work with.
Fey and Poehler are like the modern day Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance
Baby Mama is hilarious. I could quote its awesome one-liners out of context for diminishing returns. It’s also smart. The jokes are cribbed from the anxiety list of anyone who’s spent too much time reading the New York Times Style section.
It's fun to see a couple of talented, funny women head a comedy for a change.
A warm and engaging comedy that delivers the laughs non-stop. These baby mamas are red hot.
It's clumsy, not cute, an amateur show that's eager to amuse by any means.
Michael McCullers is a pedestrian director, but a potent screenwriter, wittily playing to the strengths of his stars and who's-who supporting players. This comedy isn't without complications, but it's affable, breezy and buoyant.
Yes, the film doesn't offer many surprises and grows soft and predictable by its conclusion. But it does avoid the sappy sentimentality of the genre. The movie -- and its lead actresses -- charms us more than we might expect.
The fun of the movie is watching Fey's Type A+ character, who's fairly similar to the one Fey plays on 30 Rock, bounce off Poehler's dopey slacker, who blurts out every thought that drifts into her head.
I’m not making claims that Baby Mama transcends the format’s routine progressions -- opposites not only attract, they learn from each other -- only that, within these conventions, the movie is smart, funny and beguiling.
Baby Mama ultimately gives in to sweetness, but it has some deliciously tart moments along the way.
It's a movie that deals in emotion and attempts to pass counterfeit goods. There's nothing there... . And yet by the deprived standards of the modern romantic comedy, one would have to say, well, it's not bad.
In the end, well, things are lot tidier than a toddler's room, but it's a lot like childbirth, too. You forget the bad parts and feel really good.
This story of a corporate vice president and the surrogate mother she hires is so committed to convention that it runs into cliché.
It's not horrible, but it's droopy, and it left me craving 30 Rock, with its vastly superior skewering of the privileged and self-involved. Fey should stick to writing her own material.
Baby Mama is formulaic, but this broad odd-couple girl comedy has the advantage of knowing what it is.
Latest News for Baby Mama
January 07, 2009:
People's Choice Awards Winners Announced
The 35th annual People's Choice Awards were handed out on January 7, 2009. A complete list of film nominees, with winners in bold, follows below. More...
September 03, 2008:
Austin Powers screen mastermind Michael McCullers is the guy behind this sorta same-sex parenting satire, as SNL's Tina Fey and Amy Poehler do an extreme odd couple for laughs duet, ripping into the burgeoning baby consumer industry. ![]()
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May 08, 2008:
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A hero flies into North American multiplexes aiming to kickstart what should be an explosive summer movie season. Paramount's Iron Man is first up to bat this year and is ready... More...
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