User Reviews

This film follows the story of 5 pregnant women and their partners: Cameron Diaz is a reality TV weight loss show guru who disagrees with her partner over circumcision, Elizabeth Banks is a baby shop proprietor whose husband finds himself drawn unwillingly into competition with father Dennis Quaid over everything (Quaid's trophy wife Brooklyn Decker is having twins: beat that son!), Jennifer Lopez is looking to adopt an Ethiopean baby but hubby is far from sure about parenthood, and takeaway truck worker Anna Kendrick finds herself unexpectedly pregnant after an impetuous one night stand with the guy who was nearly her prom date. These threads intertwine mildly, but the intertwining is incredibly contrived.

Most of these stories have something in them to entertain, and there are some really good things here - Anna Kendrick's performance is wonderful, and Elizabeth Banks' thread is very funny: there is scope for some exaggerated humour from her, to be sure, but I suspect that most mothers will identify with her experiences of impending motherhood more than any of the others.

There is also some not-so-good stuff - the endless visits to the "Fathers Club" where Chris Rock imparts paternal wisdom to Lopez' husband outstay their welcome by a considerable margin, and Quaid's abrupt transition from crass competitor with no empathy to touchy/feely Dad does not ring true at all.

Even so, I quite enjoyed this.

With a title like "What to Expect When You Are Expecting", you pretty well know what the whole movie is about. Its fun comes from having quite a number of different "couples" getting pregnant around the same time and seeing how each deals with it.

First billing goes to Cameron Diaz as TV fitness personality Jules. Her husband is Matthew Morrison (of 'Glee Club') as Evan. But she is only one of the big name stars, including Jennifer Lopez as Holly, who wants to have a child but can't so she and her husband, seek adoption of a young child from an African nation.

Elizabeth Banks is Wendy, pregnant with one while her younger "stepmon" Brooklyn Decker (Andy Roddick's wife) as Skyler is about to have twins.

There is also a side story of Chace Crawford as Marco pursuing Anna Kendrick (of the funny legs) as Rosie, and after a passionate "quickie" she finds herself pregnant. While they are figuring out what to do, she has a miscarriage.

Dennis Quaid is in his humorous good form as Ramsey, wealthy former racing legend, married to Skyler. Chris Rock has mostly a straight role as Vic , one of a band of dads who take their young children for walks in strollers in the park in Atlanta.

This is just entertaining fluff, but it was a bit more entertaining than we expected. There's a lot of witty, funny dialog at times.

It's "New Year's Eve" in the neo-natal unit; "Valentine's Day" with a uterus; "Knocked Up" times five. Unfortunately, that's about the best I can write about this film featuring the ups and downs of having a baby.

In an attempt to jump on the multi-story, large cast bandwagon, director Kirk Jones (the charming "Waking Ted Devine," the horrid "Nanny McPhee") - with the assistance of writers Shauna Cross and Heather Hach ("Freaky Friday") - give us a few sparkling comedic moments, only to ruin it all with depressing dramatic letdowns and cinema's most predictable conclusion.

Then again, some of the heavier scenes are actually more (unintentionally) hilarious than the lighter ones. And while there is nothing unusual about comedies with dramatic overtones, this movie is all over the map, going from pure joy in some sequences to outright horror and heartbreaking grief in the next one.

Like "Hamlet," the movie suffers from an inability to make up its mind.

With a cast featuring Elizabeth Banks ("The 40-Year Old Virgin," "Man On a Ledge"), Cameron Diaz ("Something About Mary," "Killers"), Dennis Quaid ("Cheaper By the Dozen," "The Express"), Jennifer Lopez ("The Back-Up Plan"), Chris Rock ("Death At a Funeral"), Ben Falcone ("Bridesmaids"), Brooklyn Decker ("Just Go With It"), Wendi McLendon-Covey ("Bridesmaids," "Reno: 911" TV series), Rebel Wilson ("Ghost Rider," "Bridesmaids"), Anna Kendrick ("50/50," "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World"), Rob Huebel ("I Love You, Man") and Thomas Lennon ("Hot Tub Time Machine"), among others, one figures the humor quotient would rate high in this endeavor.

One would mostly be wrong, however.

Plot has five Atlanta couples: Evan (Matthew Morrison, "Glee" TV series) and Jules (Diaz); Alex (Rodrigo Santoro, "Post Grad") and Holly (Lopez); Ramsey (Quaid) and Skyler (Decker); Gary (Falcone) and Wendy (Banks); and Marco (Chace Crawford, "Gossip Girls" TV series) and Rosie (Kendrick), all of whom are in various stages of pregnancy and/or child expectations.

Evan and Jules have hooked up while involved on the show, "Celebrity Dance Factor," (she throws up on live television after the final episode), and now constantly bicker about whether or not to circumcise the baby boy-to-be.

Gary, who was on a fat-loss TV show, and children's author Wendy are now expecting after years of trying; but also discover that Gary's neglectful, NASCAR driver father, Ramsey, and his young wife are going to have twins. The sad-sack, wimpy, whining son is one-upped by the old man - again.

Ad man Alex and professional photographer Holly are looking to adopt an Ethiopian newborn; while Marco and Rosie - who work in competitive food trucks - have a one-night stand. Somehow, all of these characters end up connected with each other, no matter how far-fetched these situations become.

And for couples having their first children, there is little chemistry or real love exhibited herewithin. The emotional depth is as shallow as a saucer and just as inconsequential.

Most of the yuks here are from Wendy, who wanted "the glow" of pregnancy, but discovers the aches, pains and uncontrollable bodily functions are paramount (her "mother-in-law," however, seems to have no trouble, at all).

A few more - rather uncomfortable - laughs are solicited from Janice (Wilson), Wendy's idiot assistant (who honestly gets more snickers due to her weight than her jokes, sad to say).

The movie's worst crime, though, is Alex's association with a group of depressing new dads, including Rock, Huebel and Lennon, who meet at a park each day and spout unwanted and unnecessary advice to him about being a father.

Few of these scenes are funny - and a running gag of one of the men's children tripping, falling and being hit in the head with full beer cans - is simply dreadful.

A herky-jerky film which lacks a fluid, coherent story, as well as any semblance of pacing, aborts what could have been a much better movie and will certainly give many viewers sympathy and - most likely - labor pains for its 110-minute running time.

I like a good all star cast, but in this case,the jokes that are giving here feel very forced, and like they are trying to hard. There are some descent performances by Anna Kendrick, and Dennis Quaid is also memorable in his role, but everybody else are all so overly written, to the point that they are not has memorable.

Several couples are expecting a baby, it shows how they are dealing with it in there own way. The Dudes Group serve little purpose to the film, the poster and the trailer make you feel like there a big part of the film, but not really, that is what annoyed me the most. It's not a bad movie, not great either.

And Brooklyn Decker is a little memorable has Quaids wife.

Warning Alert: Dennis Quaid plays a grandfather in this film. I bet that made you feel old!

As expected an average film following interlocking stories of five pregnant women and their partners.

Cameron Diaz is a reality TV show fitness and weight loss guru but disagrees with her partner about almost everything when it comes to raising the baby. Elizabeth Banks runs an avantgarde baby shop. Her husband has issues with his father played by Dennis Quaid who is very competitive being an ex racing driver and has a very young new wife who is also expecting twins.

Anna Kendrick finds herself pregnant after an one night stand. Jennifer Lopez wants to adopt a baby in Africa but her husband is unsure about it.

Periodically Chris Rock turns up as part of the Dads Club who gives paternal wisdom to some of the fathers to be and his scenes are a device to add comedy to the film.

Some of the stories are more successful than others with the Anna Kendrick and Elizabeth Banks stories being more touching whilst others are more run of the mill.

The film's ensemble screenplay is a bit hit and miss and when it comes to the labour scenes you kind of guess that one of the deliveries will not go well but it might lead to a touching father and son reunion.

I expected at least a bit more creativity in the rom-com "What to Expect When You're Expecting". Sure I knew it is a prototype chick flick, and yes I am aware I am a male humanoid. But please, did you expect me to enjoy the ridiculous and humdrum scenes of this movie. Let me start with the embryonic part of this review. "What to Expect When You're Expecting" focuses on several stories of women and their pregnancies and adoptions. One story is of a reality-show host celebrity Jules who unexpectedly gets pregnant by another reality-show host celebrity Evan; their biggest quarrel is if the child should be circumcised; I don't know about you but that just does not cut it for me in sheer entertainment. Another one is the neurotic Wendy who has desperately tried to get pregnant with her formerly-obese hubby Gary; and low and behold the unexpected happens one day and Wendy is in pregoland. Yet another yawning story is of Holly, a photographer who is not able to get pregnant so decides to get all Angelina-Jolied by adopting an African orphan. And then there is Gary's father Ramsey who impregnates his young stunning wife Skyler, who goes through the pregnancy experience as if nothing; which is pretty close to what this movie was. And I am not even touching the part of a quartet of sugar park daddies who are part of a creepy paternal cult that walk their babies on strollers in the park; but what do you expect from Director Kirk Jones' dismal film. The only story that I found semi-appealing was of young Rosie and Marco; Rosie unexpectedly gets pregnant from a one-night stand experience from the Don de Marco, and it authentically incorporates within their relationship. But this movie in the end, beginning, and middle did not even have one ounce of creativity, no thanks to Shauna Cross and Heather Hach's mechanical screenplay. The cast of this movie decided not to labor it too much with tons of silly performances from the likes of Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez, Chris Rock, Elizabeth Banks, and Dennis Quaid; many of these established actors have been known to deliver worthy performances; but not in this delivery. I did think that the up- and-coming Anna Kendrick was genuine with her performance as Rosie. And Rebel Wilson was a rebel with a cause with her comedic performance as Wendy's assistant Janice. Nevertheless, I rather go through a cesarean section then revisit the awful sections of "What to Expect When You're Expecting". It is my birth right to proclaim this movie as one of the worst movies of 2012. ** Needs Improvement