DVD
REVIEW:
WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU'RE
EXPECTING
9/09/11
OVERVIEW: It’s too late to pull out now as Lionsgate releases What to Expect When You’re Expecting on Blu-ray Disc (plus Digital Copy), DVD (plus Digital Copy), Digital Download and On Demand this fall. Inspired by the perennial New York Times best selling book of the same name by Heidi Murkoff, What to Expect When You’re Expecting is a hilarious and genuine comedy about five couples whose intertwined lives are turned upside down by the challenges of impending parenthood. Featuring an ensemble cast of Cameron Diaz (Bad Teacher), Jennifer Lopez (The Wedding Planner), Elizabeth Banks (The Hunger Games), Chace Crawford (TV’s “Gossip Girl”), Brooklyn Decker (Battleship), Anna Kendrick (The Twilight Saga), Matthew Morrison (TV’s “Glee”), Dennis Quaid (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra), Chris Rock (Grown Ups) and Rodrigo Santoro (Post Grad), this kaleidoscopic comedy is as universal as it is unpredictable, finding humor in all the unexpected trials and triumphs of welcoming a child into the world.
Before appearing on Blu-ray Disc, DVD and On Demand September 11th, What to Expect When You’re Expecting will be available on Digital Download starting August 28th. The Blu-ray and DVD are loaded with entertaining bonus materials including two behind-the-scenes featurettes and deleted scenes.
SYNOPSIS: Over the moon about starting a family, TV fitness guru Jules (Diaz) and dance show star Evan (Morrison) find that their high-octane celebrity lives don’t stand a chance against the surprise demands of pregnancy. Baby-crazy author and advocate Wendy (Banks) gets a taste of her own militant mommy advice when pregnancy hormones ravage her body; while Wendy’s husband, Gary, struggles not to be outdone by his competitive alpha-Dad (Dennis Quaid), who’s expecting twins with his much younger trophy wife, Skyler (Brooklyn Decker). Photographer Holly (Lopez) is prepared to travel the globe to adopt a child, but her husband Alex (Santoro) isn’t so sure, and tries to quiet his panic by attending a “dudes” support group, where new fathers get to tell it like it really is. And rival food truck chefs Rosie (Kendrick) and Marco’s (Crawford) surprise hook-up results in an unexpected quandary: what to do when your first child comes before your first date?
FILM REVIEW: This star-studded collaboration brings out the best in the romantic comedy genre. Director Kirk Jones delivers this hilarious and heartfelt alternating adaptation of the self-help book “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” by Heidi
Murkoff. The movie is essentially an emotional rollercoaster that ranges from couples receiving bad news regarding pregnancy, on one extreme, to the humorous realization and delivery of twins, on the other extreme, with a range of unexpected touching situations in between. Gifted comic actress Elizabeth Banks joins the likes of Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez, , Dennis
Quaid, and Chris Rock, just to name a few, to bring us the take on relationships, life and family with a spotlight on pregnancy. This uber talented celebrity line-up caroms off each other with lots of zingers and issues that work and carries the movie’s message through to the very end.
Chris Rock makes bit of a splash with his role as the unofficial leader of the “Dude” Group, offering up lots male-perspective laughs and commentary of sorts, to a bumbling quartet of house-husband dads dutifully meeting on a regular basis to exchange the trials and tribulations of “Dad-hood.” His portrayal is funny and strange at the same time, not unlike what one would imagine as “House-husbands of Atlanta:” the series (if ever there was such a show). Elizabeth Banks (Wendy), the owner of a motherhood emporium called Breast Choice, gives a very believable pregnancy performance, while Cameron Diaz seems to struggle to convince the audience that she is a capable of being in a position of pregnancy. In addition, I found Jennifer Lopez’s performance very touching and surprisingly convincing, portraying a wife struggling to put together some semblance of a real family. Quaid and the rest of the cast seem to bring out the hilarity of the film and show how pregnancy is not a one-sided ordeal, but simply put, it is in fact multifaceted.
Despite the flick having an ominous reality-TV-feel, indicative of a celebrity dance-off show, The Biggest Loser and, less overtly, The Great Food Truck Race, the essence of the movie seems to bring home the fact that Babies are miracles, pregnancy can be a physical ordeal, and men and women aren’t always on the same page of the “relationship handbook.” This, however, is about as deep as it gets with this flick and overall the film delivers on many levels. The cast is sensational, the dialog is smart and witty and the movie is hilarious and emotional at the same time.
Notwithstanding the cheesy ending, I give the movie three and a half stars for overall entertainment content.
Review
By Movie-Man Stan
DVD:
The film is
presented in widescreen in a 2.40:1 aspect ration preserving its
theatrical format. The picture is just flawless. Not only the
picture looks great in this release, also the sound it is good,
a 5.1 Dolby Digital in English that provides a good complement
to the picture. It also includes English
and Spanish subtitles.
VIDEO:
Widescreen (2.40:1) 16x9
AUDIO:
English 5.1 Dolby Digital
Subtitles - English Spanish
SPECIAL
FEATURES:
“The Dudes Unscrewed” featurette
“What to Expect and the Pregnancy Bible” featurette
Deleted Scenes
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