Here's the first one...

from The Hollywood Reporter




What to Expect When You’re Expecting: Film Review

The Bottom Line: Expect the predictable

9:00 PM PDT 5/10/2012 by Sheri Linden

Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez and Elizabeth Banks star in the film revolving around five expectant couples in Atlanta


Unlike the fact-filled bestseller that “inspired” it, the big-screen version of What to Expect When You’re Expecting has nothing much to say — nothing new, that is. Spun from mostly stale scenarios about couples facing first-time parenthood, the ensemble comedy sticks firmly to the middle of the road as it aims to reassure and comfort. Babies are miracles, pregnancy can be a physical ordeal, and men and women aren’t always on the same page of the emotional guidebook — that’s about as deep as it gets.

But predictable laughs will likely be more of an enticement than a repellent to the movie’s target audience. With an able cast led by Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez and Elizabeth Banks, and a built-in curiosity factor for the multitudes who swear by the book, the crowd-pleaser is primed for a smooth delivery at the box office, especially as a femme-centric alternative to Battleship and The Dictator.

The screenplay, credited to Shauna Cross and Heather Hach, revolves around five expectant couples in Atlanta (with locally headquartered Delta getting prime product placement). Their stories crisscross, with some of the interconnections revealed late in the overlong proceedings — gratuitous asides more than dramatic kickers.

For some couples, pregnancy is an accident, for others an obsession. In the former category are reality stars Jules (Diaz) and Evan (Matthew Morrison), and two twentysomethings whose romance has just begun. Anna Kendrick and Chace Crawford are compellingly low-key in the only story strand that’s cliché-free. In fine rom-com tradition, Rosie and Marco’s flirtation begins in competition — they’re food-truck chefs, comparing kitchen wounds, and the energy in their early encounters borders on the screwball.

Competition is a connective glue in the movie. The reality TV factor looms large, with nods to celebrity dance-offs, Biggest Loser and, less overtly, The Great Food Truck Race. That makes sense in a movie built for wide appeal. There are also more psychological, if not nuanced, contests afoot.

Among those pining for a baby is Wendy (Banks), the owner of a motherhood emporium called Breast Choice. A gifted comic actress, Banks makes her character’s generic transition — from ovulation-app-wielding control freak to a woman at the mercy of her biology — specific and watchable. Wendy’s mild-mannered husband (Ben Falcone) is locked in a lifelong competition with his alpha male father, a NASCAR hot dog played by a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, whose young wife (Brooklyn Decker) also happens to be pregnant. In the name of one-upmanship, she’s carrying twins and still doing Pilates, a supermodel blonde having a super-pregnancy.

The least comic thread of the story involves Lopez’s freelance photographer and her supportive but not-quite-ready-for-fatherhood husband (Rodrigo Santoro) as they prepare for adoption. Like everything else here, it’s only partially realized.

Amid the would-be and actual laughs, the screenplay tries to drum up drama, but every disagreement and tension is treated superficially and summarily resolved. A golf-cart race that’s the climactic encounter for two characters sums up the level of narrative risk. And with each character serving chiefly as a facet of the Multifaceted Expectant Experience, no subplot warrants true involvement. One couple receives bad news in a scene that recalls a tender moment from Up, with none of the emotional impact.

The screenwriters weave in a few factoids from the source material about the side effects and complications of impending motherhood, and director Kirk Jones orchestrates a number of broad-strokes montages that take the couples from ultrasound through labor. Offering male-perspective commentary of sorts is a quartet of househusband dads, led by Chris Rock: a geek chorus, laden with the latest baby gear and fully embracing their married-guy envy of ultra-bachelor Davis (Joe Manganiello).

Jones (Waking Ned Devine, Everybody’s Fine) imparts no style or point of view to the hopscotching material. Karen Patch’s costumes lend some character-defining oomph to the production’s sitcom-smooth surface, while an unlikely Mark Mothersbaugh contributes an unobtrusive score.

Variety

Posted: Thu., May. 10, 2012, 9:00pm PT
New U.S. Release

What to Expect When You're Expecting

By Lael Loewenstein

Five couples endure the highs and lows of pregnancy in "What to Expect When You're Expecting," a slight, glossy, star-topped comedy inspired by Heidi Murkoff's bestselling advice book. Though the pic shares little but its title with Murkoff's manual, it's nothing if not topical. Just as the book became essential reading among moms-to-be, the movie, citing more pregnancy trends than an obstetrics convention, may become required viewing for expectant parents -- a designation owing less to its quality than to a lack of competition.

First published in 1984, Murkoff's book was born out of her desire to find helpful, peer-driven pregnancy information at a time when Dr. Spock had cornered the child-care market. Though some professionals deplored Murkoff's experience-guided approach, the book remains a classic; four editions later, it's spawned a host of related titles and copycats.

No surprise, then, that Hollywood finally came calling, especially after "He's Just Not That Into You" made the successful leap from page to screen. "What to Expect" is the latest in slick packaging: Take a popular, high-concept title, weave together a limp tapestry from various loosely connected narrative strands, and embellish the project with a full roster of marketable stars (most of whom didn't have to commit to a lengthy shooting schedule).

Penned by Shauna Cross and Heather Hatch, the pic makes much of the unexpected pregnancy. Celebrity fitness guru Jules (Cameron Diaz) is stunned to learn she and dancer b.f. Evan (Matthew Morrison) are pregnant. Likewise, food-truck manager Rosie (Anna Kendrick) is surprised that a one-night stand with her hunky rival, Marco (Chace Crawford), leaves her preggers. No one is more amazed than lactation specialist Wendy (Elizabeth Banks), who nearly threw in the towel after two years of trying with her husband, Gary (Ben Falcone). Always looking to overshadow his son, Gary's dad, Ramsey (Dennis Quaid), announces at a family brunch that he and trophy wife Skyler (Brooklyn Decker) are also expecting.

Photographer Holly (a surprisingly nuanced Jennifer Lopez) and husband Alex (Rodrigo Santoro) become parents through adoption. After discovering a baby is coming their way from Ethiopia, Holly is thrilled; Alex, terrified. That leads Alex to solicit the advice of a "dudes group," a roving quartet of Baby Bjorn-outfitted, stroller-toting dads including Chris Rock and the ever-acerbic Tom Lennon. Though they warn Alex he may never have fun again, the guys also show a tender side to fatherhood. Thanks to Rock's deft delivery, these scenes also generate the pic's few big laughs.

Helmer Kirk Jones ("Nanny McPhee") does a solid job negotiating the material and managing the few tonal shifts Editor Michael Berenbaum, too, deploys smart visual cues to keep the momentum going. Given what it might have been, it's a bit of a shame that "What to Expect When You're Expecting" isn't much more than a light-hearted, star-studded infomercial for pregnancy -- but perhaps that's just what the OB ordered.

Decent reviews.

I don't appreciate the "surprisingly" nuanced comment, lol.

I can't tell if they are good or bad.

What do they mean by:


That the part is more about the drama? Or that it just isn't funny, but tries to be?

And I suppose a "a surprisingly nuanced Jennifer Lopez" is a good thing?

Yeah, it's a good thing, but I don't find it "surprising" that she can be nuanced, lol. It's just annoying that they don't give her the credit she deserves.

Yeah, they are saying it is more of a dramatic storyline.

True, but there are some people that won't watch a movie just because Jennifer is in it. So this comment might convince them to go see it anyway.

The Hollywood Reporter review is rotten and the Variety one is fresh.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/what_to ... g/reviews/

"A surprisingly nuanced Jennifer Lopez" --- Variety

Screendaily

What To Expect When You’re Expecting

11 May, 2012 | By Brent Simon

Dir: Kirk Jones. US. 2012. 110mins

A number of winning performances help keep nominally afloat ensemble baby-bump dramedy What To Expect When You’re Expecting, a colourful crowd-pleaser that is facile but about an inch deep with respect to honest relationship complications. Adapted liberally from Heidi Murkoff’s 1984 book of the same name, which peddled anecdotal and peer-driven information for soon-to-be parents, this confection works mainly as a piecemeal showcase for the talents of its cast.

A diverse and well known cast should make the movie successful counterprogramming against Battleship and The Dictator, when all open wide Stateside next week. The universality of its premise will bolster international returns beyond what is typically expected for comedic fare, and demographic ancillary value will additionally remain high.

The movie centers on five expectant couples in a cross-section of circumstances. After having been partnered on a celebrity dance show, fitness instructor Jules (Cameron Diaz) and dance partner Evan (Matthew Morrison) try to cope with pregnancy amidst their demanding work schedules. Baby-crazy author Wendy (Elizabeth Banks) and her husband Gary (Ben Falcone) have been trying to conceive for ages, and when they finally do they discover that Gary’s dad Ramsey (Dennis Quaid) is expecting twins with his new wife Skyler (Brooklyn Decker). Photographer Holly (Jennifer Lopez) and her husband Alex (Rodrigo Santoro) are considering adoption. Rival food truck chefs and ex-high school classmates Rosie (Anna Kendrick) and Marco (Chace Crawford), meanwhile, try to negotiate the after-effects of a one-night stand.

Director Kirk Jones seems a fair bit removed from the winsome yet rooted delight of his debut, Waking Ned Devine. Here he trades in “cutaway comedy,” divvying up dialogue and reaction shots in a manner more suited for episodic sitcom television. Several ensemble scenarios have rich promise for interplay, but the manner in which they are staged, photographed and edited undercut their reality.

In a near pathological avoidance of what was likely deemed “too heavy” in studio executive notes, screenwriters Shauna Cross and Heather Hach construct conflict largely through conversations sidestepped or doubts and issues only temporarily resolved.

Perhaps somewhat ironically, the movie’s most consistent and genuine laughs come from a “dude’s group” of daddies who get together on Saturdays to walk their children in a nearby park, and idolise and live vicariously through a buff jogger (Joe Manganiello). Taking Alex under their wing, this group (which includes Chris Rock, Thomas Lennon and Rob Huebel) peddles a kind of shrugging, judgment-free parenting style, which robustly embodies the exuberant frustrations of motherhood and fatherhood, and acknowledges that routinely screwing up is part of the experience.

Along with nice song selections and a playful score from Mark Mothersbaugh that play up its emotional connections, the film’s cast is certainly its strongest selling point. Banks again proves herself a gifted comedienne. As her husband, the lesser known Falcone gets some nice opportunities to shine. Up in the Air’s Kendrick confirms her status as one of her generation’s smartest, ever-present young stars, while Rebel Wilson, one of Kristen Wiig’s roommates in Bridesmaids, also delivers some scene-stealing fun.


Positive mixed review.

Nice!!

Associated Press

Movie review: 'What to Expect When You're Expecting': The book may actually be funnier

By CHRISTY LEMIRE | Associated Press



If only "What to Expect When You're Expecting" had focused on the dads' group, and didn't just drop in on them a handful of times, we might have been onto something here.

Chris Rock, Thomas Lennon and Rob Huebel are among the dudes who meet regularly to push their kids in tricked-out strollers, tote them in high-end carriers and talk guy stuff in a confidential setting away from the wives. Their no-nonsense banter, and their unabashed worship of the buff, shirtless jogger who frequents their Atlanta park, liven up what is a rather predictable and cliched depiction of pregnancy. (And yes, we are clearly in Atlanta, as evidenced by the shameless proliferation of product placement for Delta Airlines, which is based there.)

A good-looking cast of popular actors can only do so much with material that's superficial and sitcommy. Director Kirk Jones' film is "inspired by" the Heidi Murkoff advice book of the same name, one that every single pregnant woman on the planet surely has read since its initial publication in 1985. But similar to 2009's "He's Just Not That Into You," the script from Shauna Cross and Heather Hach merely uses a familiar non-fiction title as a leaping-off point to explore various intertwined relationships, ostensibly for hilarious comic effect.

There are some laughs here and there and a few recognizable moments of honesty. Elizabeth Banks' character begins to touch on something relatable; an author and owner of a breastfeeding boutique, she finds her militant stances hard to maintain once she becomes pregnant herself. As she's about to give a big speech, she realizes all the platitudes written on her note cards are glossy and false; instead, she opens her mouth and dares to share her third-trimester misery with a huge, gawking crowd. Then again, this is one of those embarrassing moments of vulnerability that always seem to take place in front of a huge, gawking crowd in romantic comedies.

More often, we get the kind of contrived, shrieky wackiness that breaks out when all the pregnant women whose stories we've been following just happen to give birth at the same hospital on the same night. Being crowd-pleasing was obviously more important that being truthful.

We begin with Cameron Diaz as Jules, a fitness expert and the host of a "Biggest Loser"-style reality show. She didn't expect to be expecting with Evan (Matthew Morrison), her partner on a "Dancing With the Stars"-style reality show, but now these two must find a way to juggle a baby along with their new relationship and high-profile careers.

Jennifer Lopez plays Holly, a photographer who's been trying for years to conceive with her husband, Alex (Rodrigo Santoro), with no luck. They're hoping to adopt an orphan from Ethiopia, an emotionally intense, life-changing moment for which Lopez's character apparently felt the need to wear fake eyelashes.

Banks' Wendy also has been trying to have a baby for a while with her husband, Gary (Ben Falcone). Once the test finally comes up positive and they go to tell Gary's father (Dennis Quaid), an arrogant former NASCAR legend, they find that dad and his new trophy wife (Brooklyn Decker) also have gotten pregnant — with no trouble at all. This competitive daddy-issue subplot, which culminates with a zany golf-cart showdown, is one of the more flimsy and clichéd elements of the film.

Then there's the twentysomething Rosie (Anna Kendrick) and Marco (Chace Crawford), competing food-truck entrepreneurs and former high school classmates who weren't all that careful when they finally gave into their flirtations one night. Kendrick is, as always, adorable and accessible and she and Crawford have a nice chemistry with each other.

Jones bops around between all these stories at a steady pace and only finds real energy when he comes back to the dads' group, which Alex joins in preparation for fatherhood. Within seconds of watching Rock riff on what it's really like to be a parent, you get a glimpse of how good this movie might have been. Instead, you should probably keep your expectations in check.

"What to Expect When You're Expecting," a Lionsgate release, is rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content, thematic elements and language. Running time: 110 minutes. Two stars out of four.

That's the best time to wear them, lol. There will be a thousand pics of that day and moment. You have to look your best, IMO.

Anyways, here's a positive review.

Tuesday, May. 15, 2012

Expect laughs in 'What to Expect When You're Expecting'
By ROGER MOORE

McClatchy-Tribune News Service

"What to Expect When You're Expecting" is a "Valentine's Day" take on impending parenthood. Assorted couples cope with pregnancies, planned and unplanned, adoption and the epic change that is coming to their lives.

It's wafer-thin, but it has plenty of laughs - a lot of them involving pregnant women's bodily functions, the rest coming from Chris Rock, who unloads lots of daddy-to-be wisdom on one prospective father. But what's surprising is how touching this film from the director of "Waking Ned Devine" manages to be. Kirk Jones and the screenwriters found real pathos in adapting the Heidi Murkoff self-help book, dubbed America's "pregnancy bible."



Interestingly, the actresses involved in this movie all chose to play characters outside their own parenting experience. Lopez has children, and plays a woman who can't. Banks, playing a woman determined to love pregnancy, had her baby through a surrogate. Kendrick and Diaz and model-turned-actress Decker aren't moms - yet.

That doesn't hurt the film, which is basically a light, superficial and frothy little romp through the pregnancy experience. It's choppy and episodic, and funny - especially when Rock, a veteran dad in real life - is holding court. But the overarching message is both moving and amusing.

Expecting a baby? You have no idea what to expect.

WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU'RE EXPECTING

2.5 stars (out of 4)

http://www.modbee.com/2012/05/14/220036 ... xpect.html

Random YouTube review:



Mixed review.

Another positive review!


Box Office Magazine

Exactly what you're expecting
What to Expect When You're Expecting
May 15, 2012 by Pete Hammond

3 out of 5 stars

What to expect from What to Expect When You're Expecting: laughs, heart and a terrific ensemble of actors doing what they do best. After the recent surprise success of Steve Harvey's self-help-book-turned-movie, Think Like A Man, yet another unlikely screen adaptation from the advice section has been turned into a conventional comedy detailing five separate stories centered around pregnancy. With 35 million copies sold, the must (and most) read book for prospective parents totally delivers a nice platform for an entertaining, if disposable movie experience. The crowd of attractive and talented actors means audiences should have fun at this early summer counter-programming entry, though despite a sizable male cast, expect Expecting to chiefly appeal to women. Problem is: new parents-the demographic most likely to be interested in the flick—are usually the hardest group to get into theaters. Still, box office returns should be sweet, if nothing to scrapbook.



Best of all—and certainly the big attraction for any male dragged to this film—is that daddy support group led by the very funny Chris Rock and featuring comics Rob Huebel, Thomas Lennon and Amir Talai as a Greek Chorus of dudes with strollers who offer sage advice on how to survive your first kid. They break up the predictability of see-sawing storylines and put some real comic punch into the proceedings. As for the others, Banks fares best among the women but all of them do what is needed to make the thin, but agreeable material work as well as it does. Will Lionsgate decide to spawn a second? One is enough.

http://www.boxofficemagazine.com/review ... -expecting

"The performances are somewhat better than the material, especially those of Banks, Kendrick and Lopez." --- Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic



(he hated the movie )

Entertainment Weekly

Movie Review
What to Expect When You're Expecting (2012)

Reviewed by Owen Gleiberman | May 16, 2012

EW's grade: B

What to Expect When You're Expecting is the latest comedy (after Think Like a Man) to be based on a self-help best-seller. What's next, Jennifer Aniston and Ashton Kutcher in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People? Adapted from Heidi Murkoff's celebrated 1984 pregnancy bible, What to Expect takes six lightly sketched couples and weaves them into the impending-motherhood equivalent of a synthetic ensemble rom-com. As sociology, it's skin-deep, but if you're a parent or preparing to be one, you might see yourself in a few of these folks and have a good time doing so.

Elizabeth Banks is terrific as a baby-book author having her first child — a woman in the full dramatic throes of the bodily-function awkwardness of pregnancy. Ben Falcone (Bridesmaids) is equally good as her doting milquetoast husband, though Dennis Quaid is stuck playing an alpha-male cartoon as Falcone's ex-racing-star father (who is having twins with his trophy wife). Cameron Diaz (as a fitness-guru reality-show host) and Matthew Morrison spar painfully well as a couple who can't agree on whether their future son should be circumcised, and Jennifer Lopez and Rodrigo Santoro are touching as a couple out to adopt. There's also a very funny pack of defeated dads who carry themselves like the living dead. Last and least, Anna Kendrick and Chace Crawford act out an unconvincing, bite-size Knocked Up. What to Expect is sort of thrown together, but that's okay: The movie hits authentic notes of anxiety and joy. B

"A surprisingly nuanced Jennifer Lopez" --- Lael Loewenstein, Variety

"The performances are somewhat better than the material, especially those of Banks, Kendrick and Lopez." --- Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic

"Jennifer Lopez and Rodrigo Santoro are touching as a couple out to adopt" --- Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

Nice reviews for a change..

That's because I'm only posting the nice reviews.

Most reviews are negative.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/what_to ... g/reviews/

A positive review from EW?!? Pigs have flown.

Good reviews

I was about to post the EW review...Yay a positive review from them! lol

How am I not surprised though?

Thankfully, it's just a small role, but she seriously needs to start looking into some more serious, mature, and dramatic roles.

And at the eyelashes comment. Only our fave!

Roger Ebert

What to Expect When You're Expecting

BY ROGER EBERT / May 16, 2012

Just what we needed. First "Friends With Kids" two months ago, about three couples who confront pregnancy, and now "What to Expect When You're Expecting," about five couples so much in synch that deliveries and an adoption occur on the same day. I'd rather see a movie about one couple, treated in some depth, than these round-robins with the editor working up a sweat to keep all the stories in the air.

"What to Expect" is a cheerful comedy with just enough dark moments to create the illusion it's really about something. It toplines Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez, Elizabeth Banks, Anna Kendrick and Brooklyn Decker as prospective mothers, and as three live births are intercut, Diaz wins the screaming contest as people shout "push! push!" at her. The girl's a trouper. Maybe we should be grateful that Lopez, in Ethiopia to meet her adoptive son, doesn't start screaming in sympathy.

But I'm being too snarky. This is a good-hearted movie with some winning performances, but it has so many characters (including a boys' club of new dads) that the plot nearly stalls with gridlock. It's clever but the stories are thin soup.

There seems to be an informal law that characters in a movie like this must have unusual and colorful occupations, to provide easy markers as we move between stories. Diaz plays Jules, a TV weight-loss guru; we meet her and boyfriend Evan (Matthew Morrison) just as they win a celebrity dance show on TV. When they're presented with a loving cup, Jules throws up into it. Gosh, maybe she's pregnant?

Wendy (Elizabeth Banks) is a best-selling advocate of breast-feeding, who despairs of ever getting a chance to practice it herself; she and husband Gary (Ben Falcone) have been tirelessly trying to conceive as slaves to an ovulation schedule that once sends them racing into the back room of a baby store for a quickie. Gary has spent years in the shadow of his father, Ramsey (Dennis Quaid), a millionaire NASCAR champion, whose trophy wife, Skyler (Brooklyn Decker), is about 40 years younger. When Gary and Wendy proudly announce "we're pregnant!" Ramsey wins again: He and Skyler are having twins.

Jennifer Lopez plays a famous photographer, seen scuba-diving to shoot manta rays; after she and Alex (Rodrigo Santoro) cannot conceive, they adopt the little Ethiopian, who looks adorable enough to pose for Gerber's ads. We're not out of cool jobs yet. Rosie (Anna Kendrick) and Marco (Chace Crawford) own competing food trucks, which vend fast food at events. She gets pregnant via a one-night stand, complaining at the hospital, "We never even went out on a real date."

Counterpoint for these stories, as if one was needed, is a quartet of new dads who meet weekly to wheel baby carriages through the park. They're led by Vic (Chris Rock), who is rich in one-liners. On every stroll, they meet their mutual friend Davis (Joe Mangianello), a narcissistic fitness buff who would rather work out than impregnate anyone.

What the five couples have in common is that they're all in the same movie. The only interlocking stories are the NASCAR hero and his son. No, wait — the son is connected to Diaz because he was on her weight-loss show.

The movie is essentially a clothesline on which to display trigger-pushing moments. I grew weary of circling endlessly among the various stories. The actors are all good company, and I would have enjoyed seeing more of each role, something I suspect they would agree with me about. The movie is inspired by the best-seller by Heidi Murkoff. It is non-fiction, which is just as well; there's no room here for anything more.

2.5/4

Mixed review. He usually stans for Jen.

Seattle Times (very negative review):

"Jennifer Lopez appears to be the only woman alive who can have an elaborate emotional meltdown while maintaining perfectly glossed lips"