5.3 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.2 |
A look at the lives of five couples as they prepare to become parents.
Starring: Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez, Elizabeth Banks, Chace Crawford, Brooklyn DeckerComedy | 100% |
Romance | 62% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1
English, English SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
UV digital copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 1.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
There’s a well known adage that states “babies (and/or children) don’t come with instruction manuals,” but that hasn’t stopped the publishing industry from trying to fill that void. Any parent worth his or her salt will be able to tell you of countless books that have attempted to elucidate the “right” way to do everything from affixing a diaper to navigating the torrid waters of teenage sexuality. And the “instruction manuals” don’t just start with childbirth. One of the most popular books of the past several decades that has attempted to school prospective parents in the joys (and, well, terrors) of having kids was called What To Expect When You’re Expecting, a field guide for the prenatal months. The book first appeared in 1984 and has sold millions and millions of copies through several editions in the interim, and if you were a parent during this multi-decade timeframe, chances are you either had the book yourself or knew someone who did. (In a nice piece of synchronicity which points up just how long this book has been around, at the very moment this review was being written a news report was released online stating that the book's author, Heidi Murkoff, had just announced that her "baby" who had inspired the writing of the book had just announced she was pregnant, making Murkoff an expectant grandmother.) Of course, no amount of schooling can properly prepare you for the immense responsibility of raising a child, and all sorts of un expected obstacles can pop up with alarming frequency. It’s material rife for mining, and of course incipient parenthood has been part and parcel of film comedies virtually since celluloid was invented, so the task of inventing something new in this genre is understandably daunting. Props, then, of a certain order to What to Expect When You’re Expecting, film version, for not even trying; this is a film that resolutely basks in its own mediocrity and refuses to aim for anything other than occasional laughs and some typically cloying sentimentality. What to Expect When You’re Expecting is, in a word, expected.
What to Expect When You're Expecting is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. Lionsgate regularly cranks out stellar transfers of both excellent and some frankly less than excellent films, and What to Expect When You're Expecting is no exception. This is a remarkably sharp and well defined high definition presentation, one that is able to easily traverse everything from sun dappled brightness to some relatively dimly lit interior locations with consistently solid contrast and incredibly pleasing fine object detail. Colors are very nicely saturated and very robust throughout this enterprise. There are some very minor stability issues on a couple of establishing shots of Atlanta, but otherwise this is another sterling effort from Lionsgate. If only the film itself were this good.
What to Expect When You're Expecting features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 mix which might strike some as a bit of surround overkill when immersion here isn't of paramount importance. Things actually get off to a great start, with the dance routine that Diaz does as part of her quasi-Dancing With the Stars appearance. The salsa music and crowd sounds ably fill the surround channels and there are some excellent uses of discrete channelization, as when one boisterous audience member shouts out an approving yell before the results are announced. Surround activity is also well utilized in several large crowd scenes scattered throughout the film, as well as its copious use of source cues, all of which sound great. Dialogue is cleanly presented and always easy to hear. Fidelity is very strong and dynamic range is surprisingly wide for this kind of film.
What to Expect When You're Expecting delivers (sorry for the horrible pun) pretty much exactly what it promises, which is a round robin of interlocking stories with pregnancy at the core. Yes, there are laughs, and yes, there are a couple of heartstring tugging moments, but it's all so completely predictable and uninspired that it actually becomes difficult to even concentrate on the film after a while, let alone care about any of its (many) characters. The cast is game, and some of the supporting performances outshine the headlining stars, but it's pretty much all for naught. There's some passing talk in the film about Couvade Syndrome, the phenomenon when an expectant father starts experiencing the same physical (and emotional) issues his pregnant significant other or wife is going through. I'm going to be charitable and chalk my incipient nausea over this film up to that.
2010
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