What to Expect When You're Expecting

I guess I continue to watch rom/coms, because of two reasons. 1) I always hope there's one or more than one that will be something fresh and original. 2) I have a loyal audience of whom I like to give a wide spread, across-the-board scope of genres to as much as I can. But, as usual, "What to Expect When You're Expecting" is just another one of the unremarkable romantic comedies one would expect.

Inspired by the New York bestseller of the same name by Heidi Murkoff, this is a comedy about five couples whose interconnected lives are turned upside down by the challenges of the process of becoming parents. TV fitness guru, Jules (Cameron Diaz) and husband, dance show star, Evan (Matthew Morrison) find that their fast lifestyle doesn't have a chance against the surprise demands of pregnancy. Baby author and advocate, Wendy (Elizabeth Banks) gets a taste of her own over-the-top mommy advice when pregnancy hormones ravage her body, while Wendy's husband, Gary (Ben Falcone), struggles not to be outdone by his competitive alpha-Dad, Ramsey (Dennis Quaid), who's expecting twins with his much younger wife, Skyler (Brooklyn Decker). Photographer Holly (Jennifer Lopez) is prepared to travel anywhere on the planet to adopt a child, but her husband, Alex (Rodrigo Santoro) isn't sure about that, and tries to hide his fear by attending a "dudes" support group headed up by Vic (Chris Rock) where dads tell what being a dad is really like. And rival food truck chefs, Rosie (Anna Kendrick) and Marco's (Chace Crawford) surprise hook-up results in the unexpected: what to do when your first child comes before your first date. Moral of this story: Life doesn't always deliver what's expected.

Others to round out the cast are Joe Manganiello as Davis, Rob Huebel as Gabe, Thomas Lennon as Craig and Amir Talai as Patel.

This was adequately directed by Kirk Jones ("Waking Ned Devine" '98, "Nanny McPhee" '05, "Everybody's Fine" '09). No real surprises here. Everyone basically taking their cues at their respective marks. The screenplay was by Shauna Cross and Heather Hach and it, too, was fairly straight forward. Don't get me wrong, this wasn't without some interesting moments. The scenes with the "dudes" support group had its funny lines with the different dads giving their insight to the fearful dad about the real life of being a dad in very blunt ways. Some of the chemistry between these couples were very good, some not.

Definitely if you're expecting a child or have children, this will be very relatable, but even if you're not, more than likely, you probably know someone who has experienced some of the things going on in this flick. In any rate, you be the judge.

Out of 4 stars: 2.5                     Rated: PG-13                      110min.