Movies Opening April 25

Two comedies and one erotic thriller open the weekend before the unofficial start of summer with Iron Man looming large, poised to obliterate any and all comers next weekend.

First off is the comedy Baby Mama starring two Saturday Night Live cast members in Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Fey, the head writer on SNL has nothing to do with the screenplay or concept for this film, which has her uptight businesswoman unable to conceive and hiring slacker/underachiever Poehler to be her surrogate, or "Baby Mama" if you will. The trailer and ads do nothing to make the project seem original. The film just seems like another lazy Hollywood comedy in The Odd Couple vein, this time with two female characters. Haven't we had enough of these since, well, The Odd Couple. On top of that, Fey and Poehler are distinctly one-note actors playing to type here, basically slumming it. One hopes that not many see it or else the world will have to bear witness to Fey's idea from Hell: a Laverne & Shirley redux, something she's been trying to get off the ground for years now.

Next up is another comedy in Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, or HK2 for short. The sequel finds the title potheads arrested for being suspected terrorists and thrown into the titular prison . What follows is their wild and wacky attempt to escape and their journey once on the loose. Countless low-brow jokes, copious female nudity, and softball jabs at President Bush, the war in Iraq, and other current events follow. The 2004 original, Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle, was a pleasant surprise. Featuring jokes poking fun and the ethnicity of the Indian and Asian lead characters while not being too mean-spirited and creatively playing on stereotypes, the film was a winner. That does not look to continue here as the ads make the sequel look like a film trying way too hard to be edgy and un-PC as the R-rating would let the filmmakers. Let's hope I'm proven wrong but I wouldn't bet on HK2 being much more than a pre-summer throwaway.

Speaking of pre-summer throwaway, the final release of the weekend, Deception, practically defines that term. Starring Hugh Jackman and Ewan McGregor, it involves the latter's descent into the world of sex clubs with the former as his tour guide. Blackmail and assorted deceptive acts commence. The plot, while certainly salacious in nature, features no real hook outside of seeing Wolverine playing a bad guy and looking good doing it, the film apparently doesn't deliver on the erotic or the thriller part of being an erotic thriller as critics have ripped it apart. The distributor, Fox, knows it has a turkey on its hands and consequently, is spending the bare minimum to market the picture and shoving it out in hopes of eventually making some money on DVD with the always underwhelming "Unrated Cut."

Bring on Iron Man!