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What to Expect When You're Expecting: movie review

( PG-13 ) ( Monitor Movie Guide )

'Expecting' is a series of clichéd situations about impending pregnancy and the differences between men and women.

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Melissa Moseley/Lionsgate/AP
'What to Expect When You're Expecting' has star power, but not much else.
  • By Peter Rainer Film critic

Babies are cute and expectant parents often aren’t. That kind of sums up “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” derived (pretty much in title only) from the bestselling parenthood manual. As movies-from-manuals go, I much prefer Woody Allen’s “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex.”

Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Lopez provide the star power, but what’s missing is script power – the movie is a series of clichéd situations about impending pregnancy and how emotionally far apart men and women are when it comes to parenthood. The only subplot with any traction is the one between Anna Kendrick and Chace Crawford, playing rival food- truck chefs. They belong on The Food Network. Grade: C (Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content, thematic elements and language.)

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