Reviewer's grade: D
Written and directed by former "SNL" and "Austin Powers" scribe Michael McCullers, "Baby Mama" is the story of a perpetually single businesswoman named Kate Holbrook (Tina Fey, TV's "30 Rock" and "SNL"), a career-minded gal who has quickly moved up the ranks of an organic grocery chain. Kate also has baby fever, a condition complicated by her single status. Adoption isn't an option and the ever-more-desperate loner just can't seem to coax her late-30s uterus into cooperating with in-vitro efforts, so she decides it's time to search for a surrogate.
Enter Angie Ostrowiski (Amy Poehler, "Hor ton Hears a Who!," "Blades of Glory" and "SNL"), a trashy broad and a working baby-maker with an idiot husband, Carl (Dax Shepard, "Let's Go to Prison," "Employee of the Month"). They're in desperate need of the tens of thousands of dollars being a surrogate will bring.
Fey does a perfect job of playing it straight opposite her old "Weekend Update" cohort, Poehler, who seems easily able to balance zany physical comedy and absurd dialogue with a sort of genuine nature that comes across as wholesomely funny. PG-13
"?Joe Wertz
