Customer Reviews

Baby Boom

5 star:		(61)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This review refers to MGM's DVD edition of "Baby Boom".....

They call her "The Tiger Lady". She's a woman of the 80's.She's a high powered ad exec,with a six figure income,has an apartment to die for, which she shares with her significant(but slightly dull)other(also a six figure income),and is about to become a partner in the firm.She's J.C.Wiatt,a real go-getter. She has it all. Or does she?

Diane Keaton turns in a touching and funny performance as this dynamic woman, whose life is suddenly turned upside-down by a surprising inheritance. No, not money or a family heirloom, this inheritance is "Elizabeth"....a bouncing bundle of joy who melts the heart of the Tiger Lady and will melt yours as well.A toddler was not part of J.C.'s plan.How will she juggle her career and motherhood? And what about romance,can that ever be part of her future now? It doesn't look good. But when life hands J.C. Wiatt lemons(and a baby)...she does it her way...she makes applesauce!

Written by Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer(who also directed), it is a nostalgic look back at the evolving baby boomer.A marvelous supporting cast includes Harold Ramis, Sam Wanamaker,Sam Shepard, and James Spader as the protoge from hell. It's a sweet and funny feel good tale. The music by Bill Conti gives the perfect feel to the story.

The DVD is presented in widescreen(1.85:1) and the sound is in Dolby Digital stereo surround. The picture is good. Not the shaprest I've seen on a film this recent, but a nice view.The surround sound is nice. The music and dialouge both clear and disguinishable.There is a theatrical trailer and it may be viewed in French(also stereo) and has subtitles in French and Spanish, but none in English. If you are interested in this film and are needing English subtitles, there is a German edition(PAL)with English captioning out there. I did not see it sold here at Amazon though.

"Baby Boom" is a fun romantic comedy that was nominated for Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture(Comedy/Musical) and Best Actress(Comedy/Musical).4 stars.

Thanx and enjoy......Laurie

Baby Boom remains one of my favorite silly movies -- featuring so many enticing and amusing elements, it is like a terrific turkey sandwich the day after Thanksgiving, with loads of mayo. Diane Keaton, always one of my personal favorites, displays her usual charm and actually makes you laugh out loud at many points throughout. Her Tiger Lady is one of the best caricatures of a shark-like corporate female ever, and her blossoming softness, courtesy of that adorable baby girl, is a joy to behold. The settings, from the hustle-bustle of a cheerfully skewed Manhattan office and environs, to the Christmas-card perfection (but don't be fooled!) of a Vermont farmhouse, pull you in, and add color to a predictable but funny plot. Sam Shepard lends his trademark subtlety and attractiveness as a Vermont vet. This movie is hard to resist.

As anyone who has walked a mile or two knows, life is about choices and making decisions. And a lot of that has to do with realizing and setting priorities, because-- as a wise person once said-- You Can't Have It All. It's the lesson we all learn in our own way in our own time, according to our own personal situation, and director Charles Shyer examines one of them in his amiable comedy, "Baby Boom," starring Diane Keaton.

J.C. Wiatt (Keaton) is a high-powered businesswoman on the fast track to success; she knows what she wants, has set her priorities, and a partnership in the firm for which she works is on the horizon. Her live-in significant other, Steven (Harold Ramis), is of a like mind-set, so they complement one another's life style perfectly. Marriage and/or having children is in neither of their respective vocabularies. then one day, J.C. "inherits" a baby, the child of a distant relative (a cousin she'd met only once) who has been killed in a tragic accident, and suddenly, J.C.'s world is turned upside down. Keeping the baby is out of the question, of course. Or is it? For J.C., it just may not be as simple as it seems, initially. She's been living life on her own terms, but now she is once again faced with choices, decisions and setting priorities. And along the way, she learns one of life's most important lessons: The fact that the lesson never ends.

There's some amusing moments and some insights to be gleaned from Shyer's film, and overall it's a pleasant, enjoyable experience. It is not, however, an entirely original idea, and Shyer laces it with stereotypes and cliches to boot. This is not necessarily a bad thing, though. If his characters are stereotypical, it's because they reflect a certain realism. J.C.'s boss, Fritz Curtis (Sam Wanamaker), for instance, typifies the image of a dedicated, hard-core businessman whom you get the feeling has to consult his day planner to work in an appointment with his own family. A stereotype? Perhaps. A reflection of reality? Definitely. The same can be said for Sam Shepard's character, Dr. Jeff Cooper, who personifies the general image of one in his situation. And again, it is a reflection of reality, stereotypical though it may be.

Even the cliches are handled in a way that makes them fresh enough to work within the context of the story, and be appreciated-- especially by those in the audience who may have experienced any of the situations presented here. When J.C. fumbles with a diaper and becomes frustrated with her own inexperience and incompetence with such things, it's cliche, but it also rings true-to-life. The important thing is, it's all well presented and actually pretty funny stuff, even if it isn't anything new.

Shyer wrote the screenplay, along with Nancy Meyers, and one angle they may have failed to cultivate fully has to do with Ken, the character played by James Spader. As J.C.'s in-house adversary, also striving to climb the corporate ladder, it may have been intrinsically more interesting had the character been a woman. The fact that Ken is a man, again, makes this particular situation fairly cliche; whereas a competitive conflict with another woman, considering J.C.'s predicament, would have expanded the avenues of possibility to a much greater extent, and certainly would have provided a more imaginative perspective.

The main reason the film works as well as it does, however, is because of the engaging performance by Diane Keaton. In J.C., she creates the antithesis of Annie Hall, but even at her most demanding there is a hint of vulnerability in J.C., a softness to that hard exterior edge she uses to shoulder her way through the business world. Keaton gives you a real sense of the conflict she's experiencing, and though it's lightheartedly rendered for the most part, you understand the underlying seriousness of it all. And the scene in which she vents her frustrations and bares her soul to Dr. Cooper is classic. Keaton's work is without question the highlight of the film, and what really brings it to life.

The supporting cast includes Pat Hingle (Hughes Larabee), Britt Leach (Verne), Kim Sebastian (Robin), Mary Gross) Charlotte, Patricia Estrin (Secretary)Victoria Jackson (Eve), Jane Elliot (Park Mom) and Linda Ellerbee (Narrator). An upbeat, entertaining film, "Baby Boom" may not be particularly memorable, but it does provide some laughs, and at the same time says something about the value of being given the opportunity to question the things we "think" we want. Kind of like saying "Never say never." After all, who can say with any certainty where destiny may lead any of us? It's something a film like this may make you consider, inbetween the chuckles. It's the magic of the movies.

It's silly, it's sentimental, it's not a "great" film, but it'll charm the pants off you. Ten years after "Annie Hall" Keaton hits her prime playing a force of nature transformed by a three-year-old and Sam Shepard's gentle country vet. This is a spartan DVD with few frills--just the original trailer and the choice of English or French soundtracks and French/Spanish/English subtitles.

On my "Rent," "Buy," or "Don't Bother" scale this is a definite "Buy."

This movie, which I fell in love with in 1987, has made me laugh and cry every time I have watched it. I owned the video and now the DVD because I never want to be without a copy. Some of it may seem a little "80's" now, but that's no reason not to watch a classic! Baby Boom is definitely a chick flick, but well worth the time on a rainy Saturday afternoon, ...even if you have seen it before

This movie is about a woman named JC who lives in New York, and who's got it all portrayed by Diane Keaton. A great job, a boyfriend a swell New York Apartment. She is headed up the coporate ladder when unexpectedly her cousin in England dies and she is left with her daughter. JC has absolutely no idea what she is going to do and struggles to be both a mom an in the workplace. At work, her collegues and her both begin to treat her like she has gone soft now that she has a child and now treat her like less then she is just because she is a mother.She gets fed up with themdecides to leave New York City and her copoate job to buy a historic housein a small town in Vermont. This house ends up giving her many problems and headaches, it is also hard for her to adjust to the country life style. With help from a Vet, played by Sam Shepard, she makes it in the country, falls in love and gets used to being a mom.

This movie is great, I first saw it when it came out in 1987.This movie is very evocative of the modern woman who struggles to have it all. It is both humerous and heart warming, and Diane Keaton really shines in the main role.A very worthwile movie!

FABULOUS DARLING! FABULOUS! What a fantastically funny movie! It's the kind that will lighten up your spirit and even make you think about what really is important in YOUR own life. A darling of a film! There should be more like it made. What a daring concept of having a 'woman'who was the 'Tiger-Lady' of the marketing industry tell the corporate ding-bats the 'facts of life' so to speak! (Can't go into it now...don't want to spoil the movie for those who haven't seen it yet)It's a treasure of a movie. I have owned it since it first came out and still pull it out. Yup! In our home the seventy+ crowd laughed through it, the half century folks applauded it, the young adults loved it and even the grandchildren wanted to 'watch it again', so for us it has already been viewed by our four generations still living and guess what? The movie's only a bit over a decade old and we have already worn it OUT ! Just this year we bought a new copy of it and one for a spare! It was truly funny and sensitive and an enjoyment!

This movie takes me back to the high powered 80s when career was everything and women were expected to choose - motherhood or career. It is still that way, but many women are choosing to be "stay at home" moms as career pressures grow. It makes me wonder why the US isn't more family and child care centered. Maybe someday?
This movie is a fun story about Diane Keaton ending up as a mom without any planning and having motherhood temporarily derail her career. She finds another avenue to have both. It is very sweet and still sends a message we need to hear.

Sorry some reviewers thought this movie was a waste of time -- not every Diane Keaton film can be an Oscar winner. Baby Boom, however, succeeds in touching the heart of anyone who has had such a driven and hectic corporate career that the notion of burping a bouncing baby on your lap is as foreign as learning to write backwards!

When J.C. Wyatt, a successful ad executive, "inherits" baby Elizabeth after an unfortunate accident claims the baby's parents (J.C.'s cousin), she is forced to manage the demands of runny noses, changing diapers (what a great scene where she actually reads the directions on the package to figure out how to put the diaper on!) along with the cut throat corporate climbers in the male-dominated world of advertising.

There are scenes so heartwarming it will bring tears to your eyes, like when J.C. falls asleep cuddling baby Elizabeth when she is sick, or when the prospective adoptive parents are so rigid and heartless that they aren't "getting a boy" it sends J.C. flying out the door, baby in tow, ready to give it another try. Even if you are not a parent, you will appreciate J.C.'s hysteria over finding the right babysitter, the proper medicine, and just about every toy known to toddlers.

James Spader is the sly fox colleague who steals J.C.'s accounts out from under her before she makes the decision to leave New York City behind and settle into a Vermont "dream house" with Elizabeth. After numerous mishaps with the house, nearly going broke on repairs and battling a brutal Northern winter, J.C. stumbles upon a golden idea to sell her homemade baby food to the local shops. Alas she is financially on top again, and really loving being a mom. She meets and falls for the town vet, learns to love the "simple life" and makes her new life a success all its own....till Manhattan calls upon her once again to wimpishly try winning her back.

True to form, J.C. accepts a business meeting where the stuffy suits offer her a fortune to take over her Country Baby label.

There's really no giving away anything in this movie since it's all very predictable, but it's still sweet and heartwarming, and you'll love the precious little actress cast as Elizabeth.

Baby Boom is an old favorite, and good fun for new parents, especially when they're fresh out of their corporate career modes.
*Favorite Movie Quote: "I can't have a baby, I have a 12 o'clock lunch meeting....!!"

I was delighted by this movie about a woman who dosen't think she's cut out for parenthood, (as she tells her roomate/semi- boyfriend at the beggining after he asks her if she'd like to own a dog, "I'm not good with living things." Although, the fact that most of her time is used up with work probably has something to do with it,) who suddenly and with out warning has the role thrown on her when a distant reletive dies, leaving her with a certian inheritence. She dosen't know what it is at first because when someone calls her up to tell her, the phone reception is so bad. She finds out what it is later at the airport, in my own favorite scene in the film, when she asumes that she's going to be inheriting money and that the baby who's with the woman she's meeting is probably the woman's own daughter. (The moral: never sighn an unread contract.) It's only after she's sighned it that she finds out what the real deal is. There is then a bit of argueing between the two women, J.C. (Diana Keaton's charecter) insisting that she's not the right person for the job, and the other woman insisting that she's the only person. The woman then leaves J.C. with baby Elizebeth, saying,"Once you get the hang of it, I'm sure you'll make an excellent mother!" The rest of the film is about J.C. trying to adjust to it all. A wonderful comedy classic.