What To Expect When You're Expecting
(D or 1/4 stars)
'What to Expect When You're Expecting' (directed by Kirk Jones) is lacking in laughs, charmless, tasteless, & it's only draw is a varied star cast. The film is set in Atlanta, where 2 couples wind up 'with child' after encounters in a public park. The 1st couple is baby-crazy author/advocate Wendy & her husband Gary (Elizabeth Banks, Ben Falcone), who've been trying to conceive for 2 yrs.. And the 2nd couple is food-truck rivals Rosie & Marco (Anna Kendrick, Chace Crawford), who know each other from high school (5 yrs. ago), hook up on the spur of the moment and, well, voi-la.
Elsewhere, TV fitness guru Jules & Evan (Cameron Diaz, Matthew Morrison of Glee), her partner in a Dancing With the Stars-like show, also find themselves with child, if unintentionally. Photographer Holly Castillo (Jennifer Lopez) is prepared to travel abroad to adopt a child, but her husband Alex (Rodrigo Santoro) isn't so sure, & tries to calm down by joining a 'dudes' support group, where new dads get to tell it like it really is & be happy. Rounding out the couples are NASCAR driver Ramsey (Dennis Quaid), Gary's alpha-dad, & his much-younger trophy wife Skyler (Brooklyn Decker).
Jennifer Lopez gets to show a variety of emotions. i.e., the scene where she & Santoro receive their baby is the sole touching moment in the movie. Brooklyn Decker is fine in the dumb blonde role. Elizabeth Banks - a gorgeous woman - seems comfortable being stuck in these annoying, loud-mouthed supporting roles; here, she shows the unpleasant side of pregnancy. It's all a shame, because I think Banks could do better for herself (in picking roles). Cameron Diaz's character bullies the Matthew Morrison character over the question of circumcision. So she's somewhat villain-ized. But her performance is fine. My favorite couple scenario is that of Anna Kendrick's & Chace Crawford's. That said, ALL of the couple scenarios, as written, are horribly conceived & executed.
For a film so aimed at a mostly female audience, it's strange that the pregnant moms, here, are such annoying nags; with hormonal emotions flying all over, and their sad sack men having nothing to do but react negatively. See, the script really turned me off to this movie. It was unbelievably predictable. Unbelievably cliched (mood swings, pleading for the epidural, etc). Poorly thought-out (they could have highlighted a pregnant mother's lack of sex drive, lack of sleep, they could have had a single mom, they could have had a same-sex marriage ... but no).
Let's see, what else? Poorly executed humor. Loose-end subplots (within the various couplings). And the real clincher, for me, was a nasty scene at the very end involving a young boy being hit in the head by a beer can, falling down a flight of steps, & the father characters treating the situation like it was no big deal. Hated that. And it dropped my rating from about a mehhhh C- to the me-no-likey D that it has.
Elsewhere, TV fitness guru Jules & Evan (Cameron Diaz, Matthew Morrison of Glee), her partner in a Dancing With the Stars-like show, also find themselves with child, if unintentionally. Photographer Holly Castillo (Jennifer Lopez) is prepared to travel abroad to adopt a child, but her husband Alex (Rodrigo Santoro) isn't so sure, & tries to calm down by joining a 'dudes' support group, where new dads get to tell it like it really is & be happy. Rounding out the couples are NASCAR driver Ramsey (Dennis Quaid), Gary's alpha-dad, & his much-younger trophy wife Skyler (Brooklyn Decker).
Jennifer Lopez gets to show a variety of emotions. i.e., the scene where she & Santoro receive their baby is the sole touching moment in the movie. Brooklyn Decker is fine in the dumb blonde role. Elizabeth Banks - a gorgeous woman - seems comfortable being stuck in these annoying, loud-mouthed supporting roles; here, she shows the unpleasant side of pregnancy. It's all a shame, because I think Banks could do better for herself (in picking roles). Cameron Diaz's character bullies the Matthew Morrison character over the question of circumcision. So she's somewhat villain-ized. But her performance is fine. My favorite couple scenario is that of Anna Kendrick's & Chace Crawford's. That said, ALL of the couple scenarios, as written, are horribly conceived & executed.
For a film so aimed at a mostly female audience, it's strange that the pregnant moms, here, are such annoying nags; with hormonal emotions flying all over, and their sad sack men having nothing to do but react negatively. See, the script really turned me off to this movie. It was unbelievably predictable. Unbelievably cliched (mood swings, pleading for the epidural, etc). Poorly thought-out (they could have highlighted a pregnant mother's lack of sex drive, lack of sleep, they could have had a single mom, they could have had a same-sex marriage ... but no).
Let's see, what else? Poorly executed humor. Loose-end subplots (within the various couplings). And the real clincher, for me, was a nasty scene at the very end involving a young boy being hit in the head by a beer can, falling down a flight of steps, & the father characters treating the situation like it was no big deal. Hated that. And it dropped my rating from about a mehhhh C- to the me-no-likey D that it has.