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"Baby Mama" (PG-13, 1 hr., 36 min.)
Tina Fey, of TV's "30 Rock" (and a recent "Saturday Night Live" alum) stars in this imperfect but highly enjoyable, slightly bawdy comedy (not for middle-schoolers) about the deafening tick of a woman's biological clock. She plays Kate, an executive with a Philadelphia chain of organic food stores. She is 37, single, and told she can't get pregnant -- "I don't like your uterus," opines her fertility specialist (John Hodgman). So she buys sperm from a sperm bank and has the doctor implant one of her lab-fertilized eggs into a paid surrogate mother. That person is Angie (SNL "Weekend Update" star Amy Poehler), an undereducated, irresponsible, junk-food-aholic. The surrogacy entrepreneur (Sigourney Weaver) who matches Angie to Kate is a bizarrely fertile Type A woman who keeps having babies despite seeming to be well past menopause, which makes Kate crazy. After Angie and her idiot common-law husband (Dax Shepard) have a falling out, she moves in with Kate. Soon, the two women are sparring over health food versus Pringles and water versus Dr. Pepper. And there are secrets and lies yet to be exposed.
Poehler and Fey bring great comic panache to their scenes. Steve Martin as Kate's ponytailed New Age-y boss and Romany Malco as her nosy building doorman are a riot, as is Weaver. The always winning Greg Kinnear carries off a thin role as Kate's new love interest, a lawyer-turned-fruit-smoothie seller. Yet that's where the film falls short. Certain elements feel too pat, as though writer/director Michael McCullers is giving in to old formulas instead of sticking to the film's great spoofs of motherhood cliches and upper-middle-class snobbery and trendiness.
A bit too raunchy for middle-schoolers, "Baby Mama" will surely entertain high-schoolers. The film contains lots of midrange sexual slang and innuendo (some of it more R-ish), a classist slur ("poor white trash"), occasional profanity and crude language, gross humor and drinking.
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BEYOND THE RATINGS GAME
-- OK FOR KINDERGARTENERS ON UP:
"Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears A Who!" G -- Just a delight. This computer-animated take keeps the Seussian whimsy, but adds three-dimensional furriness to the high-haired Whos, weight to Horton the Elephant (voice of Jim Carrey), and new dialogue that doesn't drown out the old rhymes. Kids 6 and younger may cringe at: Vlad (Will Arnett), a bird of prey chasing Horton and causing Whoville to sway on the clover Horton is holding; Horton hanging on a rope bridge that breaks; a mob capturing him; a scary-funny bit with the Mayor, a dentist, and a hypodermic needle.
-- OK FOR KIDS 8 AND OLDER:
"Nim's Island" PG -- Jodie Foster proves a deft comic actress in this kid-friendly South Seas adventure. While the film is an ungainly mix of splintered live-action narrative and a few animated interludes, nimble-minded kids 8 and older will follow it easily. Abigail Breslin plays Nim, who lives in an island paradise with her widowed microbiologist dad Jack (Gerard Butler) and has lizard, sea lion and pelican pets. Nim loves Alex Rover adventure books and doesn't know they're written by Alexandra Rover (Foster), an agoraphobic woman scared to step outside her house. Alex the writer e-mails Jack, seeking information. Nim answers while Jack is at sea, thinking she's chatting with Alex the book hero. A storm hits and Jack doesn't return. Frightened, Nim begs Alex to come. The timid writer drags herself onto a plane, her hero alter ego (Butler again) urging her on. Under-8s may be scared to see a man nearly drowned at sea, a volcanic eruption and Nim hurt in a fall. There is toilet humor, and the sight of a pig roasting on a spit. Tired Arab stereotypes are used briefly for fantasy villains.
-- PG-13s OF VARYING INTENSITY:
"Baby Mama" (NEW) -- Tina Fey, star of TV's "30 Rock" and a major "Saturday Night Live" alum, stars in this imperfect but enjoyable, slightly bawdy comedy as Kate, an executive with a Philadelphia chain of organic food stores who is 37, single, and determined to have a baby via a surrogate mother. A tad too raunchy for middle-schoolers, "Baby Mama" will surely entertain high-schoolers. Told she can't get pregnant, Kate has her doctor (John Hodgman) implant one of her lab-fertilized eggs into a paid surrogate, arranged by a pretentious, menopausal-yet-pregnant entrepreneur (Sigourney Weaver). Kate's baby will be carried by Angie (SNL "Weekend Update" star Amy Poehler), an undereducated, irresponsible, junk-food-aholic with an idiot common-law husband (Dax Shepard). Poehler and Fey bring great comic inspiration to their scenes. Weaver, Steve Martin as Kate's New Age-y boss, and Romany Malco as her nosy doorman are all a riot. Greg Kinnear carries off the thin role of Kate's love interest, but that element seems too pat. "Baby Mama" is best spoofing upper-middle-class snobbery and motherhood cliches. There is midrange profanity and sexual slang (some of the latter more R-ish), toilet humor and drinking.
"The Visitor" (NEW; LIMITED RELEASE) -- This deeply felt little drama, told with humor and fine, subtle performances, is the kind of film that will appeal to high-schoolers who appreciate real acting. It will challenge their views, with its harsh take on how our government deals with undocumented immigrants. But "The Visitor" is mainly a saga of unexpected friendship. Richard Jenkins plays Walter, a widowed economics professor from Connecticut who goes to the apartment he has long had in New York and finds a couple living there, someone having rented them the place illegally. Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) is a Syrian drummer and his girlfriend Zainab (Danai Gurira) a Senegalese jewelry maker. Walter surprises himself by letting them stay and is so energized by his new friendship with Tarek that he takes up drumming. When a threat of deportation looms, he tries to help. He and Tarek's worried mother (Hiam Abbass) have a mini-romance. "The Visitor" includes rare profanity, mild drinking, and a mild ethnic slur.
"The Forbidden Kingdom" -- Filled with gravity-defying martial arts, silly jokes, bright colors and bad wigs, "The Forbidden Kingdom" showcases kung-fu action heroes Jackie Chan and Jet Li in a film designed to blend Eastern and Western tastes. The plot is often incomprehensible, but the movie is still a hoot likely to divert teens and preteens. The mayhem is stylized and the blood from sword, dagger and bullet wounds quite modest. Jason (Michael A. Angarano), a South Boston teen and martial arts movie buff, is drawn to a carved fighting staff in the Chinatown shop of an old man (Chan). Local thugs attack them and chase Jason, who falls off a building, clutching the staff. He lands magically in ancient China, where he meets a fighter, Lu Yan (Chan again), and learns that he, Jason, is destined to fulfill a prophecy. Jason and Lu Yan meet a Silent Monk (also Jet Li) who fights Lu Yan in a spectacular go-round. The movie contains mild sexual innuendo, ethnic slurs, toilet humor and much drinking.
"Prom Night" -- Though we can celebrate the substitution of suspense for gore in this remake of the 1980 film (which was rated R and starred Jamie Lee Curtis), the new "Prom Night" feels just plain dumb. The way teen victims wander off so the psychopath can get them is hilariously obvious, even for a slasher flick. High-school senior Donna (Brittany Snow) still has nightmares about the home invasion and murder of her family, which she barely escaped. As she and her pals go with their dates to the prom, the cop (Idris Elba) who caught the killer (Johnathon Schaech) learns he has escaped. But does he warn her? Nooooo. Besides a series of relatively stylized, nearly gore-free stabbings and throat-slittings, the movie contains sexual innuendo about spending post-prom night in a hotel, semi-crude sexual slang, the start of an understated sexual situation, teen drinking and rare profanity. Not for nightmare-prone teens.
"21" -- In this slick Faustian fable, Ben (Jim Sturgess), an M.I.T. student, is lured by Micky (Kevin Spacey), his sly math professor, into a scam. Every weekend Micky and his hand-picked student/cohorts fly to Las Vegas and win gobs of cash at blackjack using the mental technique of card-counting. They tell Ben it's not quite cheating, but a heavy-fisted casino snoop (Laurence Fishburne) is on their trail. Based on a true story, the film has style but not intensity, until Ben finally sees what a selfish lout he's becoming. Along with middling violence, "21" includes a nongraphic sexual situation, other sexual innuendo, suggestive dancing, profanity and drinking. More for high-schoolers.
-- R's:
"Deception" (NEW) -- Everything about this glossy thriller feels phony, from the Scottish and Australian leads affecting American accents to the self-consciously twisty tale of greed, violence and lies, all unfolding in sleek modernist interiors with shadowy lighting. However, its explicit sexuality and undercurrent of amorality make "Deception" inappropriate for under-17s. Ewan McGregor plays a shy accountant who meets a slick lawyer (Hugh Jackman) at work. His new friend initiates him into a sex club for busy executives. It involves anonymous cell phone contacts and late-night liaisons. Soon the timid accountant is having the time of his life, until a young woman he likes (Michelle Williams) goes missing and his "friend" turns nasty. The movie shows stylized, but still quite explicit sexual situations (in one instance rather rough), nudity, brief gun violence, dead bodies, sexual language and innuendo, profanity, drinking and smoking. Not for under-17s.
"The Life Before Her Eyes" (NEW; LIMITED RELEASE) -- Uma Thurman and Evan Rachel Wood co-star in this pretentious jumble -- an impressionistic, time-bending take on events before, during and after a Columbine-style high-school shooting (based on Laura Kasischke's novel). Director Vadim Perelman's painfully slow pace doesn't clarify the narrative, which cuts back and forth among the time frames, examining the life of a rebellious teen (Wood), who, along with her best friend (Eva Amurri), is cornered by the shooter, and her adult self (Thurman), struggling with the memories. In addition to upsetting images of a teen gunman shooting students and teachers at point-blank range, the victims lying in pools of blood, the movie contains drug references, implied sexual situations, strong profanity and sexual slang, a promiscuity theme, smoking and drinking. For those 16 and older into experimental films.
"Forgetting Sarah Marshall" -- Comic actor/writer Jason Segel has concocted a script that lets him cast his own sad-sack self as the leading man in a bawdy comedy about heartbreak. Too sexually explicit and crude for under-17s, the film sets its tone right off the bat with frontal male nudity, and more than once. Segel plays Peter, a film and TV composer unable to grasp that his actress girlfriend Sarah (Kristen Bell) has dumped him. He accidentally on purpose follows her and her new rock-star boyfriend (hilarious Brit actor Russell Brand) to Hawaii. The movie includes explicit sexual situations, strong sexual slang and explicit descriptions of sex acts, strong profanity, drug references, depression and infidelity themes, and drinking. Not for under-17s.
"Street Kings" -- Keanu Reeves is somewhat miscast in this uneven attempt at hard-boiled urban crime drama as Tom, a depressed, hard-drinking Los Angeles undercover cop with an itchy trigger finger. He gets entangled in a corruption case that makes him look like a bad cop at some moments and a hero at others. Part of the confusion is intentional, but there is also a frustrating lack of clarity. The cast (also Forest Whitaker, Hugh Laurie, Chris Evans and Jay Mohr, with Cedric the Entertainer and rap stars Common and The Game in supporting roles) is able, but you never forget they're "acting" it, not living it. There are bloody shootouts, a rape threat, strong profanity, sexual language, racial slurs, talk of child molesters, drugs, smoking and drinking. OK for 16 and up.
"Smart People" -- Discerning high-schoolers will be tickled by "Smart People," a grumpy, leisurely comedy that proves that braininess does not equal happiness. Dennis Quaid, bearded and dour, plays Lawrence, a widowed English professor. His glib, friendless daughter (Ellen Page) is poised to ace the SATs. His angry son (Ashton Holmes) writes poetry. An accident leaves Lawrence with a concussion, so his adopted brother (Thomas Haden Church), a free spirit, comes to drive him around. Lawrence also falls for the emergency room doctor (Sarah Jessica Parker) who treated him. A very mild R, the film has midrange profanity, backview nudity, nongraphic sexual situations, marijuana use, drinking and smoking. The teenage girl flirts with her adopted uncle, who firmly rejects her advances. OK for teens.
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