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BABY MAMA

 ABOUT THE MOVIE

Genre: Comedy
Starring: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Greg Kinnear, Sigourney Weaver, Dax Shepard, Romany Malco, Maura Tierney, Holland Taylor

Director:
Michael McCullers
Rating: PG (Some Sexual References)
Year Made: 2008

 


 SPECIAL FEATURES

- Deleted Scenes
- Trailers

 


 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Languages: English/Thai/Japanese
Subtitles: English/Thai/
Cantonese/Korean/Mandarin
Traditional/Bahasa Indonesia/
Japanese
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Running Time: 1 hr 39 mins
Region Code: NTSC 3
Distributor: Berjaya HVN

 

 

SYNOPSIS:

Sharp comic talents collide in this hilarious comedy of opposites. Kate Holbrook (Tina Fey – 30 Rock) an uptight single executive, has put her career first all her life. At 37, she finally decides to have a baby, but discovers she has only a small chance of becoming pregnant. Desperate, Kate decides to use a surrogate mom, but her uptight world is turned upside down when free-spirited Angie (Amy Poehler – Blades of Glory) moves in to her apartment and the pair engage in a comic battle of wills.

MOVIE REVIEW:
  

The McCain-Palin team may have lost the race for the White House, but the other Mrs Sarah Palin is already a winner. Yes, I’m talking about Tina Fey, whose SNL stint as the vice-residential nominee received critical raves.

Of late, the SNL alum has proven herself to be the quite the golden girl of comedy, with her self-conceived "30 Rock" comedy series sweeping almost all the major Emmys in its category. It is no wonder then that the veteran TV actress has now made the big screen leap with another one of her SNL alums, Amy Poehler.

Sadly, however, while its stars Tina Fey and Amy Poehler do not disappoint with their spot on comedic timing, their first big-screen outing Baby Mama can best be described as a letdown. What could go wrong, you ask, with a cast of Fey and Poehler, together with big names like the always charming Greg Kinnear, the rowdy Dax Shepard and even an uncredited appearance by "Father Of The Bride" himself Steve Martin?

A lot, and writer-director Michael McCullers is squarely to blame for this ho-hum affair. To his credit, the story begins promisingly enough as successful middle-aged career woman Kate Holbrook (Tina Fey) describes her midlife crisis of sorts when after all these years, she realises that her biological clock is fast ticking away. Isn’t it the natural imperative of a woman to have children of her own, she laments. Unfortunately, it is not as easy for her. Her insensitive doctor blames her inability to get pregnant on her 'T-shaped' uterus after several IVFs prove unsuccessful.

So Kate engages Angie Ostrowiski (Amy Poehler) to be her 'baby mama' (really, just a euphemism for surrogate mother). But Angie’s rocky relationship with her boyfriend, Carl (Dax Shepard) forces her to move in with Kate which sets off a series of predictable clashes between upper-crust working lady Kate and working class girl Angie. Throw in a romance between Kate and juice store owner Rob Ackerman (Greg Kinnear) and you better much can guess how everything else unfolds.

But predictable is not so much the letdown of this movie than unfunny. The first hint of this is when writer-director McCullers has Kate and Angie looking like long-lost lovers meeting each other at the in-vitro fertilisation operation room to the tune of Lionel Ritchie’s "Endless Love". Perhaps the worst of all is Barry (played by Steve Martin), Kate’s hippie-looking white-haired pony-tailed boss of her organic food company, whose off-putting means to inspiration include getting her to sit on top of the conference table to experience 'the air up there'.
Luckily, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are still a joy to watch on screen. The scene where Kate and Angie bond over American Idol karaoke at Kate’s apartment is a hoot but unfortunately such moments of comedic glee are quite few and far in between.

In the end, what is supposed to be a breakout big-screen role for the current reigning comedy queen of TV turns out to be simply a middling affair. It is passably entertaining for a lazy Sunday afternoon but ultimately a disappointment given its pedigree of comedic talent.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

There are six deleted scenes totalling 6 minutes. One scene involving using a breast pump particularly stands out from the rest. The DVD is round up with Burn After Reading and Hellboy II trailers.

AUDIO/VISUAL:

There are three audio tracks present here (English, Japanese, Thai). Granted this is supposed to be a romantic comedy, there’s nothing much in the movie though to be experienced on the English 5.1 track. Good visual transfer that complements the movie’s bright visual colour palette.

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING:


Review by Gabriel Chong

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This review is made possible with the kind support from HVN Berjaya

 

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