Kate (Tina Fey, 30 Rock) wants a baby.  Angie (Amy Poehler, Saturday Night Live) wants money.  What better way to help these two women than for Angie to become Kate’s surrogate aka baby mama.

Surprisingly enough this movie was not written by Fey, as I had hoped, and it showed.  If you’re a fan of 30 Rock don’t expect the same kind of flair in Baby Mama, which was actually written and directed by Michael McCullers (first time director and sometime writer for SNL).  Although McCullers pulls off a decent movie, there are a few stumbles upon the way that really hinder the movie.  He tries to put in an occasional twist and some funny quips, but ends up with a pretty predictable movie.  Halfway though my mom had guessed the ending (and that’s saying a lot if you’ve ever seen a movie with her - she’s usually wrong about her predictions!)

If you’ve seen the previews for this movie, and I’m sure you have, then you’ve already seen most of the funnier moments.  But there are still at least two reasons I can think of as to why you should see it anyway (or rent it later).  First, there’s the obvious chemistry between Fey and Poehler.  If you ever saw them do Weekend Update on SNL then you know what I’m talking about.  These two actresses play off each other with ease and it’s this relationship that makes the movie work.  Secondly, there’s Steve Martin.  If that’s not reason enough, I’ll explain further.  Martin plays Kate’s new age, hippie boss and every time he’s on screen he completely steals the scene.  He doesn’t even have to talk, but just stare into Kate’s eyes to “share his genius” and the whole audience began to laugh.  When it went on longer than necessary we continued to laugh at the awkwardness of it all, which was done perfectly.

There are a few other reasons, like Romany Malco (Weeds) showing up as Kate’s apartment doorman to lend some funny lines, but he doesn’t have much screen time to really shine.  Instead the audience is left with Greg Kinnear (Little Miss Sunshine) and Dax Shepard (Employee of the Month) as the ladies’ love interests.  Unfortunately neither of these men really brings much to the movie, although Shepard once again proves that he can play a loser with ease. 

In the end Baby Mama does prove that two women comedians can make a decent comedy movie, but given another opportunity I think Fey and Poehler could have made a great movie.

 Overall, I’d give this movie a B - . It’d be higher if I hadn’t seen the previews first.  I would suggest waiting until it comes out on DVD to see this one.