El plan B

"The Back-up Plan" is your usual romantic comedy. I tend to like most romantic comedies so it worked for me.

I think it was a good choice for Jennifer Lopez. With such a beautiful feminine figure, I would prefer to see her as the romantic lead as opposed to most other Hollywood actresses found in these types of roles today. Alex O'Loughlin is a relative new-comer; I found him very handsome and charming.

Although this film offers almost nothing new, at least they tried to give the characters careers that you don't see in every other movie, especially for O'Loughlin's character. I appreciated that. They also added a group of single mothers, the stellar actresses went above and beyond and gave me something to remember the film by.

The jokes for the most part are tried-and-true. You may not laugh all that much, but if you like the romance in romantic comedies, then you will probably like "The Back-up Plan".

After seeing the disappointing "Bounty Hunter" I went to see this movie with a little hope. I was wrong because this movie failed also. The story is actually in 99% of the cases impossible to happen in real life simply because there's no man out there that will be able to raise someone's babies after just one week of relationship. Second the acting was sub-mediocre. A large amount of over acting and such a clicheic story full of scenes that we saw over and over and over again in so many movies about girl meeting boy or boy meeting girl.

The movie looks just like any other romantic movie out there, the dialogue is so childish full of pointless advices, lame flirting and the character development really sucks. The soundtrack is worse... a bunch of songs cut and inserted here and there to promote bands and stuff such as because Hollywood loves these days just to make some more profit from these movies.

With all these, the movie is good if you wanna take a chick to your local theater and then just do your thing ... if not... don't even bother.

I first saw this a month ago, while really tired. Now I'm watching a 2nd time with a much clearer head realizing it's a decent movie to watch. Not much funny and a lot of ridiculousness. Jennifer Lopez's character isn't very easy to stay with things with the boyfriend. That was disorienting, but it's a sweet romance despite its many flaws. Only recommend seeing this once and don't pay for it maybe just watch it on Showtime like I did.

The most difficult thing about story telling is the ending, especially so in a movie script. Now I am not going to reveal anything about the ending of this film except to say the last sixty seconds or so is very cleverly worked, and I am not speaking of the crazy credit outtakes.

So what about the beginning and middle? The plot setting and cast introduction is well worked with the main leads giving energetic and enjoyable performances throughout. I am not going to agree with those who may feel the single mum group is a mistake since the film is a comedy, and there is plenty of comedy within the group even if it may offend some. But I do feel as if the idea of the group was a filler which may have gotten out of control - no real back-up plan perhaps.

The film overall is entertaining and although the idea of "insemination" is not as fully explored as it could have been because of where and how the film begins, I feel it does what it says on the tin and ends very well indeed.

So I liked it, and whilst it is not a must see movie it is certainly worth watching. Six out of ten and a star for Ms Lopez for doing such wonderful things with some stew and half a loaf of bread.

I really wanted to like it. I talked to Alex O'Loughlin about the movie over a year ago, I think. And, this was Jennifer Lopez' big return to film, after a 5 year absence. Both of their characters in The Back-Up Plan are very likable. She is a successful businesswoman who has decided she's done waiting for Mr. Right and a family. She goes ahead and gets inseminated. That day, she bumps into Stan, a gorgeous funny guy who has his own farm (note the cheese, above) and dreams of owning a sustainable food shop. He pursues her, she resists. All sorts of clumsy, weird things happen along the way. Honestly, these characters and their relationship is really interesting. It's all the other junk the filmmakers put into play that I found distracting and distasteful and unbelievable. For instance, Zoe has an upscale pet store with a couple of interesting employees who have realistic questions about her and for her, but we barely see them. Instead, we're subjected to a strange single mother's group that is stereotypical and offensive. It's like the writer and director are trying to straddle a line between a sweet rom-com, like Sweet Home Alabama, and something more crude, like Knocked Up. There were so many likable and believable story threads that were just dropped, in favor of the gross out scene or something silly that just didn't make sense for the characters. I didn't hate it, because I liked the leads, I was just really disappointed and not satisfied. I give The Back-Up Plan a 6 out of 10.