Creed II
Ralph Breaks the Internet
Mission: Impossible - Fallout
Homecoming
Log in with Facebook
OR
By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies, and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and Fandango.
Please enter your email address and we will email you a new password.
Critics Consensus: The cast is stocked with likable performers, but What to Expect When You're Expecting is too disjointed -- and too reliant on stock rom-com cliches -- to live up to its distinguished literary namesake.
Critic Consensus: The cast is stocked with likable performers, but What to Expect When You're Expecting is too disjointed -- and too reliant on stock rom-com cliches -- to live up to its distinguished literary namesake.
All Critics (132) | Top Critics (33) | Fresh (29) | Rotten (103)
Technically the genre isn't beneath contempt. But this movie is.
Bringing a child into the world is no laughing matter, and all involved seem to have done their level best to make things as mirthless as possible.
Babies are cute and expectant parents often aren't. That kind of sums up What to Expect When You're Expecting.
Director Kirk Jones and screenwriters Shauna Cross and Heather Hach consistently fall back on corny music and slow-motion to try to get laughs. Very little of this movie feels risky, or even frisky.
Patently contrived to deliver the safer side of pregnancy-related humor over the course of five tidily intersecting plot lines.
Remember when advice books stayed on the shelves where they belonged?
Although it's meant to be a comedy, did I laugh? I might never have stopped but for one small thing, which I feel obliged to mention: I never started. I sat there stony-faced like a stone, with a face.
Diaz's plotline seems to revolve solely around an argument with Morrison over the merits of circumcision. She's pro-cut. He's fanatically anti-cut. Clearly, as is the film's editor.
What to Expect When You're Expecting provides a snapshot of contemporary anxieties about imminent parenthood, but it may be more worthwhile as a document for future pop culture scholars to use to understand what was trendy in 2012.
The charismatic cast (particularly Banks and Lopez) manage to find the humanity in their clichéd roles but they can't transcend all the surface-level schmaltz on display here.
Provides good chuckles and heartfelt drama - paired with an equal amount of familiar gags and flat story ideas.
What To Expect When You're Expecting delivers a stale plot, mostly underwritten characters and almost no joy. Expect little and you may not be entirely disappointed.
Apart from a few funny scenes, this is a lame romantic comedy that follows five uninteresting couples (some of them really annoying) and has a ridiculous and embarrassing sense of humor involving gases, urine and vomit - which only shows how witless the producers are.
Super Reviewer
Really quite moving and entertaining with lots of disparate stories about parenthood from adoption, to miscarriage, to a difficult and unglamorous pregnancy. The ensemble cast is like a "Pitch Perfect" meets HIMYM guest stars reunion, and they're all en pointe: Anna Kendrick and Chace Crawford bust each others' balls, Elizabeth Banks and Ben Falcone are dorky and supportive of each other, and JLo is impressively maternal. I also love the backdrops of several subcultures such as reality television fanatics, food truck rivals, and of course, the gangsta dad group.
Can't believe I actually sat through this. It was on my "no way" list, but I do like some of the cast, so decided to watch it on TV. Definitely wouldn't have paid money to see it. Having said that, not as bad as I expected, (but believe me, my expectations were very low, so that's not actually saying a lot). As the title suggests, it's all about pregnancy, so if you're not obsessed with that and babies, probably not the movie for you either. The cast are good, and that's probably what saves this. I found the young one night stand storyline totally unbelievable, the others not so bad, but obviously the topic bores me to death and I can't relate to these women. I can imagine mums would probably love this and have a good laugh. I don't think anyone else would! Overall if you like the cast, it's *maybe* okay for a free watch on TV if you've nothing else to watch.
What to Expect When You're Expecting was just OK for me. It had a couple actors I liked in it, but not many. I only liked a couple of the story-lines. I could have done without Cameron and MJM's story completely. I liked Holly's story, but my favorite was Chace and Anna's story the most. They were funny, flirty, and their scenes were the most realistic besides Holly's. It had it's funny moments just not enough. I expected more laughs and better dialogue. Dennis Quaid was really funny and was fun to watch act like a complete ass of a father. It's not something I would watch again.
View All Quotes
View All