Kinda Pregnantis a new romantic comedy featuring gross-out humor, and starsAmy Schumer (Trainwreck) as Lainy Newton, a teacher in New York City, and Will Forte (MacGruber) as Josh Lewis. The Netflix film, produced in part by Schumer and Adam Sandler, recently debuted and iscurrently sitting at number one on the Netflix movie chart in the United States ahead of Valentine’s Day.
The film follows Lainy, who is in her 40s and wants to finally start building a family with her boyfriend, Dave (Damon Wayans Jr.). Unfortunately, he has other thoughts on his mind and asks about open relationships.Poor Lainy spirals, especially as her best friend and fellow teacher, Kate (Jillian Bell), announces she’s pregnant.
One thing leads to another, andLainy ends up trying on a fake pregnant belly and the next thing she knows, she has a new friend named Megan (Brianne Howey), who believes Lainy is pregnant, while actually being pregnant herself. The balance for Lainy is keeping up the pregnancy act with her new friends, while also maintaining her “other” life where friends know she isn’t actually expecting.
Since it is a romantic comedy, Lainy has dinner at Megan’s house and meets her brother, Josh, played by Forte. As is usually the case with these films,they begin to date, which brings about more comedic moments.
Gross-Out Humor Can’t Save ‘Kinda Pregnant’
Despite the talent involved,Kinda Pregnantscored pretty low on Rotten Tomatoes, where it earned a 25% score with critics and 23% with audiences, one of the rare instances that critics and viewers agree with each other. IMDb has it at an average score of 5 / 10, which is a little better. However, inhis review for MovieWeb, our own George Edelman notes thatthe gross-out humor can’t save the “exhaustingly predictable” film:
“Kinda Pregnant revels in a combination of gross-out pregnancy-related humor and awkward ‘moments’ between truly gifted comedic talents.Unfortunately, even the better scenes don’t rise far above a smirk or a chuckle. Kinda Pregnant is perhaps best viewed as Knocked Up by way of Bridesmaids, though it lacks the lasting comedic punch and ever so slightly innovative plot points of either.”
There was a point in the mid- to late-2000s and 2010s thatraunchy comedieswere all the rage, and usuallyfeatured actors like Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, Zach Galifianakis, and others. But those movies weren’t just dominated by men, with women leading films such asBridesmaids,Bad Moms(and its sequel,A Bad Moms Christmas),andWalk of Shamebeing popular films.
Brianne Howey & Will Forte Talk ‘Kinda Pregnant’ and the Tragedy of ‘Coyote v Acme’
‘Kinda Pregnant’ stars Brianne Howey & Will Forte discuss their own relationship fibs, and Forte looks back on the cancellation of ‘Coyote v. Acme.’
Schumer is a very talented actress and her filmTrainwreckwas a box office comedy hit in 2015, while her popular sketch show,Inside Amy Schumer, earned multiple awards and nominations, including two Primetime Emmy Awards and a Peabody.Despite all of that,Kinda Pregnantcan’t muster many laughs despite scenes like a prenatal yoga class featuring plenty of farting. However, since the movie is a streaming hit on Netflix, raunchy comedies could see a revival. If nothing else, we may getanother season ofInside Amy Schumer.
Kinda Pregnant
