Ralph's Movie Reviews: THE BACK-UP PLAN

Saturday, April 24, 2010

THE BACK-UP PLAN

Romantic comedy

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Robert Klein: gynecologist Dr. Harris
Jennifer Lopez: pet shop owner Zoe
Alex O'Loughlin: cheese-maker Stan
Michaela Watkins: Zoe’s best friend Mona
Linda Lavin: Zoe’s Nana
Tom Bosley: her beau Arthur
Anthony Anderson : the playground Dad

REVIEW
It’s been my experience that you are better off to lower your expectations when planning to take in a romantic comedy. Suspension of disbelief and a willingness to go along with a predictable plot are indispensable.

To be sure this one has some humorous moments but certainly not the three or four totally contrived situations: they look and feel out of place and serve to remind you how removed from reality this film is.

From what I could gather, women will like this movie more than men because there’s a lot of time devoted to different aspects of pregnancy including a rather protracted session of natural birth in the company of “loving companions”. The screeching and yelling is not for everyone.

CLASSIFICATION

for sexual content including references, some crude material and language.

P.S.
In keeping with the current trend to include out takes along with the closing credits several are mildly amusing but hardly worth hanging around for.

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my ratings system

I've always thought that telling too much about a movie or warning someone about a "twist" at the end deprives the person the pleasure of seeing it as it unfolds, so I don’t do it. You may not always agree with my rating of course, but at least it is an unbiased opinion unlike some of the full time professional reviewers who are on the studio’s payroll.

A few movies you won’t see any review from me:

Scary movies: I’m the world’s biggest chicken and just hate getting the crap scared out of me. I can handle an unexpected door slam, that kind of thing, but a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat…not for me. Sorry.
Movies geared to the young teen and pre-teen crowd with dialog comprising mostly of crude remarks, awful jokes and lots of rude, socially unacceptable body noises. "The Spy that Shagged Me" comes to mind. (I wonder if the kids know what the British verb to shag someone really means? They probably do; I bet you it’s the parents who haven’t a clue).
Sometimes Hollywood gets on a roll and they produce a series of movies that are all very much alike. For example movies about the CIA were very popular and so we had The Bourne Identity and Bad Company and The Sum of All Fears. They all had the same basic theme and it becomes repetitive. I will see some, but not all of them.

FYI this is my rating system:

0 stars = Terrible: so bad it’s not worth talking about; in fact, I’d pay you not to go
= Lousy: I actually got up and walked out before the end it was just that bad (no kidding)
= Not so good: thought about walking out but hung in just in case it got better (but it didn’t)
= A so-so good movie: I enjoyed it somewhat but wasn’t all that crazy about it
= A really good movie: I recommend seeing it
= An excellent movie you just got to see! I suggest you put it on your "To Do List" it’s that good.

some favourite websites

For those into it, Nitpickers at

has more movie mistakes than you could ever imagine. My contributions can be seen if you check out the Nitpickers Registry and click on the link Nitpickers Listed by Nitpicker Number, select the group 45,401 - 45,500 and drill down to number 45411. Although I have 56 nitpicks to my credit, some have almost 2,000. You wonder sometimes where they find the time to do it.