Baby Mama DVD

DVD Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Surrogate Mom Comedy Featuring SNL’s Fey and Poehler Comes to DVD

Despite being promoted to Vice President of a chain of organic supermarkets, Kate Holbrook (Tina Fey) isn’t totally fulfilled, because the 37 year-old workaholic’s successful career has come at a personal cost. For, she has put off marriage and starting a family so long that she’s just learned from her gynecologist that she only has a one-in-a-million chance of becoming pregnant.
Desperate and with no man in her life, she pays $100,000 for the help of Philadelphia’s most reputable surrogate mother service. They implant her fertilized eggs in the womb of Angie Ostrowiski (Amy Poehler), a woman billed as the model surrogate.
Soon, however, Angie shows up at Kate’s door unannounced and needing a place to live, and slowly the truth about her begins to emerge. Turns out that she has just broken up with her slacker boyfriend, Carl (Dax Shepard). Concerned for her unborn infant, Kate lets her move in and belatedly gets to know the gum-snapping, fast-food junkie.
The ensuing yuppie-meets-blue collar tensions which arise provide the bulk of the yucks in Baby Mama, a fish-out-of-water comedy pitting Saturday Night Live’s (SNL) Amy Poehler against the show’s former star/head writer Tina Fey in a surprisingly-subdued, estrogen-fueled class war.
This passable picture’s only flaw 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. Amy’s lame portrayal of Angie proves to be an unconvincing example of art imitating life, which means Baby Mama doesn’t have much in the way of any real baby mama drama.
About the best that can be said for this formulaic, instantly-forgettable romp is that it’s better than your typical SNL vehicle.

Very Good (2.5 stars)
Rated PG-13 for profanity, sexuality, crude humor and a drug reference.
Running time: 99 minutes
Studio: Universal Studios Home Entertainment
DVD Extras: Alternate ending, deleted scenes, “The Making of” and “Saturday Night Live” featurettes, and more.

To see a trailer of Baby Mama, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU34zV9A3gU