STUDIO: Universal
RELEASE DATE: September 9, 2008
STARRING: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Greg Kinnear, Dax Shepard, Romany Malco, Maura Tierney, Holland Taylor, Sigourney Weaver, and Steve Martin
WRITTEN BY: Michael McCullers
DIRECTED BY: Michael McCullers
FEATURES: Feature Commentary with writer/director Michael McCullers, producer Lorne Michaels, and cast members Tina Fey & Amy Poehler
U-Control - Picture-in-Picture

Baby Mama stars two of the most talented comediennes on television in Amy Poehler and Tina Fey, a pair who might both win Emmys later this month for Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock, respectively, and features one of the more impressive ensembles of the year to support them. With writers as talented as Fey and Steve Martin in front of the camera and actors as experienced as Sigourney Weaver and Greg Kinnear, Baby Mama should have been a slam dunk, an instant comedy classic. The film did do reasonably well at the box office - it opened in first place and went on to make over $60 million on a reported $30 million budget - but it was not a breakout hit and was only moderately received critically. Watching it again on Blu-Ray, it becomes clearer why Baby Mama never turned into the word-of-mouth smash that many people thought it would. It's just not consistent. Fey, Poehler, and Kinnear do their best to turn their characters into three-dimensional people, but the script and the direction by Michael McCullers keep the talented cast tethered to a sitcom premise that never quite comes together believably.

Kate Holbrook (Fey) has put career ahead of family for nearly the first four decades of her life and has become a successful businesswoman but not a mother. At the age of 37, she decides to have a child, but is told that she has only a one in a million chance of getting pregnant due to genetic reasons. Adoption will take up to five years for a single woman, so Kate turns to a surrogate mother to carry her baby. Enter Angie Ostrowski (Amy Poehler), the cultural opposite of Kate, who quickly ends up moving in with our heroine as the two plan for impending motherhood. Meanwhile, Kate starts dating the local owner of a juice bar played by Greg Kinnear and Romany Malco, Steve Martin, Maura Tierney, and Steve Martin pop up in supporting roles.

Baby Mama suffers from indecision of tone. The "Odd Couple" buddy comedy at its core works best because Fey and Poehler are not only excellent actresses but clearly good friends in real life. Their actual buddy chemistry translates well to the film itself and nearly make it worth watching, but Baby Mama feels like a missed opportunity at something more than that and every time it strays from the two leads, it falters. There's a reason the Poehler/Fey dynamic was played up in ads and Kinnear and Martin's involvement was downplayed. McCullers' debut directorial effort too often feels like a bad sitcom, especially the forced twists and turns of the final act, but the talented actors make it a reasonable choice for a rental on a rainy Saturday. With the pedigree of the cast, we were hoping for more than that faint praise.

If you're going to make that reasonable choice to rent Baby Mama, do so on Blu-Ray. Universal has seamlessly made the switch from HD-DVD to Blu-Ray and Baby Mama looks and sounds as good as you would expect it to on the next-gen format. Of course, Baby Mama isn't the kind of movie to take full advantage of the technical possibilities of Blu-Ray, but the picture and audio quality is never distracting and that's all you really need for a comedy like this one. And the Blu-Ray version of the film features one of the best developments in the format, picture-in-picture behind-the-scenes featurettes and interviews that allow you to get into the making-of the film without having to bounce around menu screens. Like a lot of movies released on Blu-Ray, the special features, including a light and funny commentary track, are more enjoyable than the film itself.