Baby Mama (2008)

3/5

Baby Mama is a fairly lightweight comedy that is at turns formulaic and predictable and also surprising and unexpected. It follows a successful 37-year-old barren businesswoman (Fey) and her attempts to have a child through an agency that provides her with what turns out to be an "ignorant, white-trash" surrogate (Poehler). It's fast-paced and easy to enjoy--far from a masterpiece but also far from a dud--with relatively few dead jokes and a number of laugh-out-loud moments to balance them out. I saw it because I love Tina Fey and 30 Rock, and while it's not quite at that level of perfection, it's a pleasant enough way to spend 90 minutes on a Sunday afternoon.

On the technical front, everything was average. Literally everything: writing, directing, music, acting, cinematography, editing, and anything else I'm forgetting. My favorite part of the movie was the colorful assortment of side characters, particularly Steve Martin and Sigourney Weaver as Fey's hippie dippie boss and fertile 60-year-old surrogate agent respectively. Oh, and there's also the birthing teacher with a Barbara Walters lisp. Brilliant. Feel free to go out and watch this movie if you like Tina Fey, SNL, or 30 Rock, but pass on it if you find none of those appealing.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0871426/

The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005)

4/5

The 40-Year-Old Virgin is an atypically smart take on a typically dumb comedy. It succeeds not because it generates more laughs, but because it generates more empathy. While I actually found most of the characters shallow and stereotypical, the titular role is surprisingly fleshed out. Carell's perfectly nuanced performance was amazing. I was blown away by a simple yet necessary line of dialogue he utters near the end that belies the simplicity and stupidity of the plot: "I got this when I was in second grade! Do you know how hard it is for a kid to not open that?" It is by far my favorite line in the movie. A close second comes from Seth Rogen's character: "You wait for it to grow into a plant... and then you fuck the plant."

The movie works well throughout. It is funny and it has heart, but it also has problems. Many scenes were side stories thrown in for comedic effect. And though it didn't usually happen, some jokes fell absolutely flat. The flashback/montages were stylistically jarring. And the story jumped around a lot. Because of this, the runtime was a bit long, which made the obligatory "discovery to argument to hatred to realization of true love" at the end seem tedious instead of tender. But again, being a huge Office fan, I love seeing the actors cameo in minor roles. I saw Knocked Up and enjoyed it; I think I may have enjoyed this movie more though, so I highly recommend it.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0405422/