What To Expect When You’re Expecting
Released May 18, 2012
Rated PG-13
Directed By Kirk Jones
Starring C. Diaz, E. Banks, J. Lopez, C. Rock, C. Crawford, C. Cole, A. Kendrick, D. Quaid, B. Decker & more
110 Minutes
Red flags pop up everywhere when you look at “What To Expect When You’re Expecting” on the surface. The first one is Jennifer Lopez being present. This is never a good start. Her last rom-com, The Back Up Plan, was nothing more than abysmal. She hasn’t exactly had her fair share of winners before that either. The second red flag is the premise. Simply put, a bunch of different couple have children. There really is no core meaning to it, no type of goal to build up to. Thirdly, an all-star cast. As I mentioned before, Lopez is here, as well as Cameron Diaz, Anna Kendrick, Chris Rock, Brooklyn Decker, Dennis Quaid, Elizabeth Banks, among others. This is never a good sign. Why? Watch New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day and you will see precisely why. These types of films don’t tend to have a good track record. Are these red flags enough reason to not go out and see the film?
If you guessed “Yes” to the question I last asked, you are correct. There just aren’t enough redeeming qualities to pay your hard-earned cash to see this cliche’d mess. The film is heavy on cliche’s and overall, just lacks originality. Sure, the cast is talented, but when you have such an overused formula in play, there isn’t much anyone else can do to improve the production. With a premise that sounds empty from the start, you know things can’t possibly go over well, and they don’t. What To Expect When Expecting literally runs off immature jokes and cheap attempts at laughs, while at the same type, displaying stereotypical relationships that are totally uninteresting and boring. This is one of those all-out bad movies that will rake in the cash due to it’s desperate desire to please a wide audience. The trailer itself is better than the actual film, so if you watched the trailer, you aren’t missing anything else, trust me.
What To Expect When Expecting ultimately fails to impress and brings absolutely nothing new to the table. Despite it’s all-star cast, it never gets going, heck, it barely gets started. Expect to see all the rom-com cliche’s, all the cheap laughs and all the unfunny one-liners. I’m not saying there isn’t anything good about the film, because sometimes I found myself laughing, but it was way too sparse, the film just has too many gaps and it just ends up dragging toward the end. It tries to deliver as message in the end, but it’s so cliche that it’s simply irrelevant and you don’t care about it. What To Expect When Expecting would rather use cute babies, cuddly romance and dry humor to impress it’s audience, and in the end, ends up self destructing, making it a huge disappointment, especially for fans of the cast members.
Score:
1.5 out of 5
