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Baby Mama | 
 enlarge | Director: Michael Mccullers
Actors: Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Greg Kinnear, Dax Shepard, Romany Malco
Studio: NBC Universal
Category: Movie
Buy New: $3.99
Rating:  81 reviews
Sales Rank: 33
Genre: Comedy
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: Video On Demand
Running Time: 100
ASIN: B001HQKB1Y
Theatrical Release Date: April 25, 2008
Release Date: November 4, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 76 more reviews...
 Noteworthy January 9, 2009
PLOT
A 30-something executive grows more and more desperate to have a baby. She eventually opts for the surrogate mother option, a choice that brings with it many light-hearted complications.
REVIEW
This is a broadly amusing comedy. The script is reasonably witty. The chemistry between the executive (Tina Fey) and the surrogate (Amy Poehler) is the main attraction here. Talented actors Sigourney Weaver, Greg Kinnear and Romany Malco are unfortunately wasted in unengaging supporting roles. An unbilled Steve Martin, however, does crack a smile here and there as Fey's lunatic boss.
If you're a fan of the TV show "30 Rock", don't get excited. Fey, one of today's most talented comedy writers, did not write or produce "Baby Mama".
I would recommend buying this DVD only if it fell below the US$7.00 mark. Perhaps then it can wait for a rainy day when you're in an undemanding mood and feel like a light comedy. And there's certainly no need to buy it on blu-ray.
ELEPHANT STAMPS
None.
 Baby Mama DVD January 9, 2009
Baby Mama is a good gift for a teenager..funny, entertaining and will be viewed over and over...
 Such a dissapointing, sexist film January 7, 2009
Not sure why I would think that a film called Baby Mama would be thoughtfully entertaining. I don't know. I guess was under the impression that Tina Fey is smart and witty (maybe she really can only make this work in television time) and BC graduate Amy Poehler can add a savvy spin to material. The film has a few chuckles but quickly steers itself straight into the safe funny zone. The stereotypically safe funny zone. You know women single and over 35 must be super successful "career women" and have given up on any sort of social life. All women want children. The whole infertility thing is just hysterical and so is pregnancy and giving birth, while we think of it. The jokes are so tired. And you've seen them before. I'm not a major fan of 30 Rock but I've enjoyed some of the episodes and thought Tina Fey might be a little different. She does make the successful single woman stylish at times on that show. Though even there you see the jokes from Alec Baldwin about her being a lesbian because she's wearing pants or because she's over 30 and single. Oh, it's OVER honey.
I like to think that I've been picky. I have a brain. I have a heart. I use both in making my decisions. Sure, sometimes I want a guy to be there for me all the time but why do I feel like a failure at times because there isn't one? I have never had any male friends say that they don't expect to meet anyone or that they've "given up on dating." No, it's only my girlfriends who have careers. The ones who have families have already had the boyfriend/husband. I've been doing what I want to do for the past decade and not had to decide what someone else thinks. Not everyone needs to be part of a couple or to have a family to be considered successful. Oh, I'm joking. Of course you have to check all those things off your list or you're a real loser. Who doesn't know that? I spend enough time in therapy. And I'm being so sarcastic, in case you didn't figure it out. Yet sadly our American society does think that these are the things a woman must do. She has to have the career, marriage and family or there's just something off, something wrong, something, oh horrors, different about her.
 The Funny Lady January 6, 2009
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!
All in all, a pretty decent movie January 3, 2009
It is a bit of a commentary on how few good comedies there have been in the past couple of years that this is, bizarrely, one of the best comedies of 2008. I'm tempted to chase a rabbit and ask precisely why Hollywood has gotten so bad at producing good comedies (though I suspect it has something to do with so many emulating the terrible comedies of the Apatow combine), but I'll instead say that while this is not at all a bad movie, it shouldn't have qualified as one of the best comedies of the year, though it did. All in all this was a fun, enjoyable film. It is just that there should have been many others as good or better.
I've seen over the years many of the Second City shows here in Chicago. Although the shows I've seen have featured many, many men and women who have enjoyed a great deal of success in comedy, on TV, or on film, in fact I can remember only three performers from the shows I've attended. First and foremost I remember Steve Carrell, especially his hysterical impersonation of Fabio. Second, I remember Stephen Colbert. Third, I remember Tina Fey. Interestingly, while I remember well Tina Fey, I do not remember Amy Poehler, although I definitely saw her. Still, it is great to see two of the people I saw together in a film, even if I remember only one of them.
This is good, but it isn't as good as Tina Fey's main gig these days, 30 ROCK. There are some good moments in the film, but few great ones. Both Tina Fey and Amy Poehler were persistently funny, and there was also some humorous moments featuring Steve Martin, but while the film was good, I kept thinking about how upsetting it was that there weren't better comedies this past year. It all makes me wonder if 2008 wasn't one of the least funny years in the history of Hollywood.
2008 has, however, to go down as a great year for Tina Fey. In addition to her success on BABY MAMA, Tina went from success to success thanks to 30 ROCK, which was clearly the best comedy on television, and has a host of awards to prove it. She also won the Emmy for Best Actress. But her most valuable public service might have been in permanently deflating the hopes of Sarah Palin to be taken seriously by the American people. As one of the least substantial political figures in decades, Palin was extremely vulnerable to receiving her public comeuppance, but it was Fey who delivered it in the most devastating impersonation in recent (or for that matter distant) memory. If America hadn't given up on Palin earlier, they surely did the second that Fey, as Palin, proclaimed "Now it's time for some fancy pageant walking." How can Palin ever talk about foreign policy when Fey's words that "I can see Russia from my house" ring in our ears? I don't remember a comedian single-handedly ending the political career of a politician so completely (and yes, Sarah Palin's career is over -- if ever she tries to run for anything above governor of Alaska, Tina Fey will just trot out some more parodies and take care of that).
So, while 2008 was definitely the year of Fey, it wasn't a great year for film comedy. Nor was BABY MAMA the best place to see her strut her stuff. That would either be her Palin impersonations on SNL (along with Amy Poehler's unforgettable rap alongside the real Palin when the latter declined). Hopefully 2009 will show a rebound of the film comedy. As things stand, BABY MAMA is unfortunately about as good as we have for 2008.
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