Baby Mama
Universal Pictures | Release Date: April 25, 2008 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
22
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
It's the chemistry between the stars that makes the film stand out in a drab spring. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Best when skewering New Age entrepreneurs for what might be called Compassionate Capitalism. Steve Martin is sublime as Kate's boss, Barry, purveyor of organic food and Zen koans. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Even though Kinnear is meant to be obvious love interest, it's the relationship between Kate and Angie that becomes the film's central story, making this comedy sweeter -- and more honest in its depiction of class difference -- than one might otherwise expect. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Though the competition hasn't exactly been stiff, Fey and Poehler may well be the best female comedy duo since Lucy and Ethel. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
In this era of Apatow and Ferrell and Rogen and Wilson, of men monopolizing movie comedy, Baby Mama feels absurdly momentous, and even political. Fey and Poehler aren't just taking back control of their bodies. They're taking back control of their profession. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Although the big picture itself gets mushy, the small moments, especially involving Fey, are sharp. Read full review
70
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Fey is a delight to watch throughout. Read full review
70
SalonStephanie Zacharek
An essentially sweet-natured picture that doesn't go as far as it could. Read full review
70
TimeRichard Corliss
This is a comedy with the old-time blend of wit and sentiment. Years from now, when you stumble across it on TV, you could persuade yourself that, back in the two-thousand-oughts, they made pretty good movies. Read full review
63
New York PostLou Lumenick
Surely, if Fey herself had written Baby Mama, this mild cross between "Baby Boom" and "The Odd Couple" would not be so crushingly predictable. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
There's nothing terribly wrong with Baby Mama but it's probably better suited for viewing on television, where many of the participants cut their teeth. This is small screen stuff masquerading as something bigger. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
Baby Boom serves up plenty of smart, knowing laughs early on, but by the time it hits the third act (or would that be trimester?), it barely crawls to the finish line. Read full review
60
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
There are gags and scraps of action that give the movie fits of buoyancy, and these tend to come not so much from the younger, eager performers as from the old hands. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
The movie hardly allows itself any sharp moments at all -- it's much too sweet-natured to be cruel, and much too cheerful to be angry. It probably could have pushed a few more buttons, but Baby Mama aims to please and succeeds. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
In a pleasing contrast to Fey's sharpness, Poehler keeps her performance unpredictable and fuzzy. In this just-add-water comedy, a very funny movie star is born. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
It's not without laughs--Poehler and Fey, as ever, have strong chemistry, and there's a truly bizarre scene in which Martin offers Fey a strange "reward" for a job well done--but there's a lot of arid space between them. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
Writer/director Michael McCullers sprinkles the film with sight gags and comic characters (the lisping birth coach becomes funny out of sheer doggedness), but his pacing is poor and doesn't know how to showcase the small-screen chemistry of Fey and Poehler on the big screen. Read full review
50
Village VoiceRobert Wilonsky
Ultimately, that's all this shrugging disappointment is: a "Saturday Night Live" sketch stretched a good hour past its breaking point of no return. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Midway through I started wondering why I wasn't laughing more. "Baby Mama" was not written by Fey and/or Poehler, which may be the reason. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
For those who crave mannerisms and shtick and like their jokes set up and knocked out with plenty of arrows and quote marks, Baby Mama may fall flat. But audiences alive to the modest charms of its take on female friendship will be rewarded with at least a few quiet chuckles. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
The film never comes fully to term, as it were: the visual style is sitcom functional, and even the zippiest jokes fall flat because of poor timing. But, much like the prickly, talented Ms. Fey, it pulls you in with a provocative and, at least in current American movies, unusual mix of female intelligence, awkwardness and chilled-to-the-bone mean. Read full review
50
SlateDana Stevens
Baby Mama is the most disappointing movie of the year so far--which, granted, isn't saying a lot in mid-April. Read full review
50
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Baby Mama is rescued by two scene-stealing veterans: Sigourney Weaver as the smug, patrician owner of the surrogate company, and a priceless, ponytailed Steve Martin as the self-infatuated New Age owner of Round Earth. These two aren't onscreen a lot, but the movie seems most fully alive when they are. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
The show is redeemed by its co-stars, up to a point. They struggle womanfully, and sometimes successfully, to find truth in the script's silly symphony of false notes. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
The script favors routine "Odd Couple" gags over the sort of comic contemplation of motherhood a writer like Fey might have brought to the subject. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
Just amusing enough to provoke a few chuckles and just short enough to keep you from glancing at your watch. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
A painfully predictable movie. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
By the time it reaches its supposedly crowd-pleasing finale, Baby Mama may have self-respecting comedy fans (and even Tina Fey fans) crying uncle. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Poehler is the life of the party and steals just about every scene, although there's not much to steal. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
Sporadically funny, bland, talent-wasting junk. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
You could blast for it, and you still won't find 30 uninterrupted seconds of truth in Baby Mama. The characters are lies. Their emotional workings are lies. The jokes are based on lies about human behavior. Read full review
50
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
There’s a lot of talent up there on the screen, and some authentic laughs, but too much of it is comedy territory that was claimed long ago. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleJosh Rosenblatt
Just like it is in the world of "SNL" that Fey, Poehler, and McCullers sprang from, the choice gets made time and again to aim not for the high road but for the great, big, fat, juicy, unchallenging, uncontroversial middle ground, where everybody’s laughing but nothing is all that funny. Read full review
38
PremiereRyan Stewart
An exhausting 90 minutes of SNL-centric mediocrity that gives one the nagging feeling that Tina Fey's inability to cut the cord is going to quickly start to cool interest in her upcoming projects. Read full review
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