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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: Paramount
Salesrank: 58034
Released: August 5, 2008 |
| Our Price: $6.73 |
| Used Price: $9.52 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
An aspiring writer faces up to the responsibilities of marriage and family in this romantic comedy from writer director and producer John Hughes. Despite the misgivings he pours out to best friend Davis McDonald (Alec Baldwin) Jake Briggs (Kevin Bacon) marries high-school sweetheart Kristy (Elizabeth McGovern). After an abortive attempt at graduate school in New Mexico the couple settle in suburban Chicago. Jake fakes his way into a job as an advertising copywriter while Kristy settles into her own corporate job. The couple face the typical ups and downs of any new marriage especially after Davis visits with a bimbo on his arm regaling his pal Jake with tales of the good life. A few years later Kristy decides to stop taking her birth-control pills and tells Jake about it three months later. Plagued by doubts unfulfilled ambitions and images of a fantasy girl (Isabel Lorca) he once spotted in a club Jake resists the idea of fatherhood. Then he finds out he has low sperm count and his manhood thus challenged lines up for fertility clinic-assisted stud duty. The birth doesn't go as smoothly as Jake expected however setting the stage for climactic realizations. Edie McClurg who played the nosy school secretary in Hughes' Ferris Bueller's Day Off makes a cameo appearance as an officious neighbor. In addition a who's who of other Hughes alums and Hollywood stars lend their faces and voices to a series of closing-credits shots in which each suggests a name for the titular baby.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY/ROMANTIC COMEDY Rating: PG-13 UPC: 097361380940 Manufacturer No: 138094
Description of She's Having a Baby:
Having delved repeatedly into the world of teenage joys and sorrows, from Sixteen Candles to Ferris Bueller's Day Off, writer-director John Hughes took a step into adulthood (or some facsimile of it) with She's Having a Baby. Peppered with whimsical asides and busy voice-over observations, the movie is shamelessly fun to watch, even if it doesn't add up to anything especially profound. Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth McGovern are newlyweds struggling through the tribulations of a youthful marriage. Along with the usual uncertainties, Bacon is sacrificing his dreams of becoming a writer to work in an ad agency, and his best supposed pal (Alec Baldwin, just before stardom) tries to seduce his wife. Hughes may have been reflecting on his own past job in advertising, and maybe that explains why the movie plays like a superficial, if entertaining, TV commercial. --Robert Horton
She's Having a Baby Reviews:
80's style 80's drama, todays heart 
2009-09-22 - This movie was heartwarming, funny, stylish & yet also had a slight 'brat pack' feel with some angsty "we're really adults now, OMG" moments.
If you like Kevin Bacon, this is a good movie, but if you don't, don't worry. Its not just about him. Elizabeth McGovern was really good & you where able to see some fun moments.
"She's Having a Baby"...and lets us watch! 
2009-07-24 - Kevin Smith, of Jay and Silent Bob fame, lauded this film as one of his favorite John Hughes films. He has good taste!
"She's Having a Baby" is a darling film about two young kids going through the typical motions of getting married, going to college, buying a house, having a baby and ultimately, growing up. We open at their wedding, seeing Kevin Bacon's character, Jake Briggs, trying to cope with his fear of geting married and growing up. Alec Baldwin plays his best friend, Davis, who is constantly trying to remind Jake of the free life he could be living if he wasn't tied down with the ol' ball and chain. He tells him they could leave now, he could forget the whole thing, just say the word! Jake truly loves Kristi, (Elizabeth McGovern's character), and chooses her over the bachelor lifestyle that Davis enjoys because he knows that type of life is not all it's cracked up to be and "there's more to life than getting laid."
Kristi is obviously the more mature person in the relationship, as we can see when her and Jake go to a club and Kristi is not having as good a time as Jake. We can see it all just from her expression that this was probably one of their old haunts and she grew out of it. We know that Jake probably convinced her to go and she just went along with it for his sake. When Jake leaves Kristi to head to the bathroom, someone tries to ask her out, but we can tell from her body language that she says no because she is happily married. Jake, on the other hand, is trying to cope with temptation from the pretty blonde who is flirting with him across the club and who we meet again a couple of times throughout the film.
We watch as Jake tries to secure a job that will pay him enough to support himself and Kristi while trying to pursue his true dream of being a writer in his spare time. After he has been working for a while, Kristi finally decides that she is ready for a family without consulting Jake first, which leads to some very funny scenes that play out in Jake's imagination. Problems arise later on in the film when Davis tries to seduce Kristi, Kristi can't get pregnant and a heartbreaking moment when things don't look good for them as a family.
Ultimately, this movie shows us how two people can make a relationship work, despite all the outside influence that is trying to bring them down, from money troubles and family stress to temptation to stray and anything else you can imagine having raining down on your relationship. You feel good after watching this movie, like there truly is hope in the simplicity of true love in the face of doubt.
A great side benefit to this film is its soundtrack. There are some lesser known tracks from Everything But the Girl and Love & Rockets, and some cute tracks like the title track by Dave Wakeling and "You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby" by Kirsty MacColl. There is also a scene in the movie which features Kate Bush's "This Woman's Work" that is a real tear-jerker. Hughes likes to play around with montages in this film and each one is good at evoking emotion from the audience.
It's gooood 
2009-03-29 - Oldies really are goodies sometimes. Good light movie for a rainy afternoon. Really get a kick out of the lawn mower scene. How many times have you stepped outside just to see everyone else was mowing their laws just then too. :D
Birth scene was very touching. Well done.
Wonderful Movie, Flaws and All
2009-02-17 - This is one of those movies that is a collection of both wonderful and lousy elements, but the good ultimately overwhelms the bad. The basic story of a young married couple is a heartfelt winner with laughs and real-life truth aplenty. The chemistry between Jake (Kevin Bacon) and Kristi (Elizabeth McGovern) is amazing, and the terrific soundtrack adds to the movie at every turn.
Unfortunately, the writing is uneven and often clumsy. Throughout the movie, Jake is confused about what he wants out of life, yet the viewer is left confused, too. Jake's longing for "something else" in life is left so undefined that the viewer can't really relate to his angst. Jake's narration continually refers to life "closing in on him" and such, yet it appears things are going fairly well for him, so why the heartburn? One keeps waiting for a big scene where Jake is finally able to enunciate what his problem is, but it never happens.
The worst element of the film by far is the character of Davis (Alec Baldwin), Jake's best friend from high school. Jake is immature, but basically a nice guy. But Davis is portrayed as such an unredeemable jerk (Baldwin basically just had to be himself here) that it is nearly impossible to ever see how these two could have ever stood to be around each other, much less have the brother-like relationship it is claimed they have. He shows up in three scenes, and he's a bigger jerk each time. During his third scene, he convinces Kristi to give him a "goodnight kiss" (totally unbelievable), only to be rebuffed when he tries to take things further. After spurning his advances, Kristi informs him that she won't tell Jake about the matter because "you have your good points." Really? Which ones?
While the film is highly cynical toward marriage and family in many ways -- bickering parents, prying parents-in-law, squaresville suburbs inhabited by men obsessed with their lawn mowers, etc. -- it in the end affirms the marital relationship by showing its redeeming power in the lives of Kristi and Jake. Funny, poignant, and well-acted, this movie will stay with you for years after viewing it. Unlike romantic comedies that show how a couple formed then leaves you there in the puppy-love bliss uncertain of how things turn out long-term, this movie explores what happens after the lifetime vows are made. When it's over, there is no doubt in the viewer's mind that this is a union which will stand the test of time. In this day and age, that is something worth cheering.
Hopes, Dreams, Daydreams, and Nightmares
2008-11-25 - SHE'S HAVING A BABY is a romantic comedy from the 80s that also works very well as a very serious drama. To call it a chick flick would simply not do it justice nor give it due credit. Personally, I've never heard of a romantic comedy more creatively pieced together.
The story--not at all new or complex, and yet never tires of being told--is of a newlywed couple Jake and Kristy Briggs (Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth McGovern). They don't have a lot of money, but they're trying to make ends meet and move up in the world. Things become more stressful when both sets of parents begin putting enormous pressure on the two of them to start a family. Then Kevin Bacon's lack of sufficient income to provide comes into question. College sometimes helps a lot of people. But not Jake Griggs. Which brings us to one of the funniest exchanges of the movie:
KRISTY: What was your major?
JAKE: Romantic Languages.
KRISTY: What was your minor?
JAKE: Elizabethan poetry.
Not exactly what the high-pay employers are looking for. But through sheer determination to provide for his wife (and hopefully baby) Jake lands a job at an advertising firm which pays very well. The only problem is that he hates the mundane monotony of his job. And this frustration is now coupled with Kristy's growing obsession to get pregnant. The salt gets poured on an all-too open wound when Kristy consults a fertility specialist and learns that the problem lies with Jake.
Intertwined throughout this film are Jake's daydreaming and visions of the ridiculous and sometimes even the ridiculously nightmarish. Scenes such as Jake and Kristy and the baby warming their hands on a cold night while Jake uses pages of his book and kindling for the fire; the in-laws sitting in to give baby-making pointers; and of course, the famous neighborhood lawnmower musical. And there are others.
What I like most about this movie is that it depicts a married couple who are devoted to their marriage. They face hardships, good times, tough times, fierce arguments, and even temptations. But they remember who they fell in love with and to whom they made their life commitment. That alone puts it in a far higher category than almost any romantic comedy of the last 20 years.
This movie can be watched and enjoyed by almost anyone. I first saw it when I was single and content to be so. Now I am married and enjoy it even more.
