Buddy comedies hit, miss the mark
Published on 5/1/2008
By Meredith Carter
"Baby Mama"
Starring Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Greg Kinnear, Sigourney Weaver
Consider "Baby Mama" the estrogen-loaded equivalent of a Judd Apatow comedy.
The difference, however, is that "Baby Mama" isn't so much funny, original and heartwarming as it is mildly amusing (never laugh-out-loud funny), contrived and disappointing. And how sad that is, because Fey and Amy Poehler are a comedic dream team if one ever existed.
"Baby Mama" presents a portrait of two diametrically opposite woman. First, there's Kate Holbrook (Fey), the unmarried vice president of an organic food company based in Philadelphia. She's got an appreciative boss (an unfunny Steve Martin), a nice apartment and a biological clock that's gone haywire. The problem? Kate's uterus is a reproductive dud. Then she meets Angie Ostrowiski (Poehler), a pea-brained, loud-mouthed classless woman willing to carry Kate's baby for a hefty $10,000 paycheck.
In its earliest scenes, "Baby Mama" works well because Fey and Poehler have great chemistry. They spar and play to each other's strengths (think a modern-day female "Odd Couple"). The script skewers Kate's obsession with high-end baby products (she buys a stroller with built-in airbags). And early on, Poehler's crudeness is mildly funny; in Kate's upscale apartment, she's as much out of place as a Paris Hilton would be in a K-mart.
Yet the "Odd Couple" routine wears very thin very fast, leading up to a rushed ending that's dull, utterly predictable and undeserved. None of the secondary actors stand out, leaving Fey and Poehler to carry the entire movie (which is notably longer than an "SNL" skit). In short, "Baby Mama" flounders as a female buddy comedy because these actors play it safe where Apatow takes risks. And that makes "Baby Mama" average when it could have been first-rate.
Grade: C
"Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay"
Starring John Cho, Kal Penn, Rob Corddry, Ed Helms
Every so often, a sequel comes along that is smarter, funnier and better that the original.
"Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay" is, um, not necessarily that sequel.
Still, that's not to say there isn't plenty to enjoy in this zany, unpredictable second installment of the adventures -- misadventures, really -- of Harold (Cho) and Kumar (Penn), two stoner pals who end up in the strangest places. Fans of "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle" won't mind taking a second helping, but newcomers expecting cinematic brilliance need not set foot in front of the ticket booth.
"Guantanamo Bay" picks up, more or less, where "White Castle" left off: Harold and Kumar have survived their trip to Cherry Hill, but now they're bound for (where else?) Amsterdam to find Maria (Paula Garcés), Harold's dream girl. But Kumar smuggles his latest invention -- a smokeless bong -- onto the plain and he's mistaken for a terrorist. A tightly wound government suit (hilariously played by "Daily Show" alumn Corddry) ships them to Guantanamo Bay, but the guys escape and head for Miami ... and they meet some unusual characters along the way.
That summary is a bit simplistic, particularly since "Guantanamo Bay" takes a number of plot turns. There are too many characters to list here, but the most memorable include a block-headed translator with the IQ of sea kelp (Helms) and Daneel Harris as Kumar's likable love interest. And, of course, who can't love Neil Patrick Harris, who returns to poke fun at himself and trip on shrooms?
"Guantanamo Bay" contains its fair share of gross-out gags (including one memorable one at a "bottomless" party), but the movie has an almost satirical edge, a willingness to mock America's boxed-in, militaristic post-9/11 mindset. One character wipes himself -- quite literally -- with a holier-than-holy government treatise, while the U.S. President (James Adomian) fires us a cocaine-laced joint and warns Harold and Kumar not to trust the government.
Still, the whole point of "Guantanamo Bay" is to have fun, to avoid being too serious, so don't label it a satire. Talk about a buzzkill.
Grade: B-
