The Back-Up Plan
The Back-Up Plan
PG-13 | 23 April 2010 (USA)
The Back-Up Plan Trailers

When Zoe tires of looking for Mr. Right, she decides to have a baby on her own. But on the day she's artificially inseminated, she meets Stan, who seems to be just who she's been searching for all her life. Now, Zoe has to figure out how to make her two life's dreams fit with each other.

Reviews
GetPapa Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible
Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.
Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.
Jerrie It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...
Python Hyena The Back-Up Plan (2010): Dir: Alan Poul / Cast: Jennifer Lopez, Alex O'Loughlin, Michaela Watkins, Eric Christian Olsen, Danneel Harris: A perfect back-up plan is to avoid this film altogether and watch Date Night instead. It regards forced change as Jennifer Lopez becomes weary of her dating life and decides to have the sperm donated and inserted. Then comes the lamest romantic encounter in history as Lopez and Alex O'Loughlin end up in the same cab where they spat, then she ends up at Farmers Market where he sells cheese, then he stalks her at her pet store. They fall in love too and its enough to make a person upchuck in their shorts. Is there anything in this pitiful garbage that hasn't been done in every other romantic bullshit? Director Alan Poul doesn't seem to have any handle on the humour or the relationships because neither blend successfully here. Lopez has played many stupid roles in her career but this one ranks as one of her most nit-witted characters. She manages to crash her car into a tree because she gets starry eyed. Her back-up plan should be to seek therapy after playing someone this unsympathetic. O'Loughlin starts out as this guy who takes nothing serious to being this suddenly responsible guy when he realizes that Lopez is pregnant with twins. It is like a personality switch midway. Supporting roles are characters who act like total morons and show up when the plot conveniently needs them. Locations bear some invention particularly the cheese place but in the end the best back-up plan for this light weight mess is to abort it with lighter fluid and a match. Score: 2 / 10
mattiasflgrtll6 This isn't the first bad rom-com I've seen exactly. But it does stick out for being EXCEPTIONALLY bad, because I didn't for a SECOND buy anything at all which was happening. Every minute of this movie is stupid. We have Zoe, who is inseminated. Then we find her fighting over a taxi with somebody. FIrst of all, what does it matter who saw the taxi first? They can both ride in it! Just dumb. Secondly, there's the typical "Oh, the guy he/she saw earlier suddenly pops up right where she happens to be out of sheer coincidence" cliché. And only a MINUTE after talking with him about his cheese business, she falls in love with him? WHY? And how come they are so nice to each other now? Oh, I forgot, there has to be the "Small silly argument leads to true love" s'hit! Hell, after meeting him only ONE, ONE MORE time I tell you, she starts to blush when thinking about him. And only a few days later, Stan prepares a dinner so grandiose it's like they were celebrating their anniversary. And after that, they are DEEPLY in love with each other, like they've known each other for months. She tells him later on she's pregnant. Does he say "I don't know about this, we've only known each other for a week"? NO! He f'ucking agrees right away to be a father! HOW THE HELL WOULD THAT EVER HAPPEN??? If it's anything this movie does, it's rushing. Rushing, rushing, rushing forward everything. And we are just supposed to believe it. Like we are a flock of retarded sheep.Later on, he says to someone it's not "their children". With that, he means she inseminated herself. But she interprets it as "Oh, you don't give a s'hit about our children! You asshole!" So guess what? She breaks up with just because he used a poor choice of words. EVEN HER OWN F'UCKING MOTHER POINTS OUT THE STUPIDITY OF THIS, FOR F'UCK'S SAKE! Then, there's the "shocking" twist ending where it turns out she's pregnant again. Wow. Like that was meant to surprise me. If anything, that's as predictable as it f'ucking gets.If that's not enough to convince you what a stinking piece of s'hit this is, there's also the acting. Melissa McCarthy is great as usual, and she's doing her best with the poor dialogue she's given. Linda Lavin is okay. She's nothing special, but she does have a few amusing lines at least. The rest are terrible. Everyone is either overacting in the worst possible way or sound like they don't give a s'hit about the movie. Which isn't strange though, since the script is so lackluster the lines meant to sound romantic are more of a joke than the jokes themselves. Jennifer Lopez is godawful. Her shrieky and even childish voice gets on my nerves! She also had the worst character, who doesn't know how to make reasonable decisions if she so was held at gunpoint. Alex O'Loughlin isn't much better. In fact, he's almost just as bad. Just like Lopez, he's overacting to the worst degree and doesn't nail a single moment, even those that could have been funny. I just get the feeling that he thinks "F'uck it, I'm doing this just because, no point in giving a convincing performance". Either that or he's just an all-out terrible actor. Unless I see a movie where he's doing a better job, he's simply a terrible actor to me. The music playing throughout the movie is just a string of stock music used for one thousand romantic comedies and some crummy out-of-place "hip" new songs.Phew. Finally got that out there. Be warned people. If you have to watch a mediocre romantic comedy with someone, pick a Hugh Grant movie. At least he can actually f'ucking act.
ComedyFan2010 I am not sure how they managed to make this movie so bad. They seemed to try pretty hard to do that. When I heard the story I thought it would be hilarious. A woman gets artificial insemination and meets the love of her life the same day. This could have been very funny, but it was just the opposite of it.The thing is that it makes no sense. I don't see what happened with those to that after a few dates the guy without much questioning had no problems to raise somebody elses kids. Sure he was all shocked but didn't even consider the option of getting out. And then they have this lame fight based on miscommunication? Sure, there is a conflict needed in such a movie but there were so many opportunities to have a believable one with such a story.I have nothing against JLo and have seen her do some good acting before but in this movie she is just irritating. Bad acting and a very annoying voice. My god, how did this guy fall for her, especially since he didn't see her awesome "old ass". The guy's character is absolutely boring. There is nothing about him that makes him interesting, making cheese isn't enough, especially since there seems to be too much cheese.The single mom's group was just a sad disappointment. Yes, I get it they were going for slapstick, but Zoe freaking out at that birth just made her more dislikable again.. Sure, it was insanity and more gross than funny, but her overreaction to it was too much.The only good thing about this movie besides the idea is the adorable dog, he is the reason I give an extra point as he was some cute fellow. but he just made Zoe's character even more unlikable as I never saw her being nice to the little fellow, I remember her yelling at him though. The pug needed more screen time for sure.I feel bad for Tom Bosley that this was his last movie. Such a good and well known actor going away in this disaster..
Sjhm I like romantic comedies, occasionally (war movies and sci-fi are my go to normally). I know people are inclined to pan her, but I like Jennifer Lopez, and she has pulled off many fine and occasionally very funny performances in films as diverse as Angel Eyes and Maid In Manhatten. But here everything is forced. She's having a perfectly wonderful time, but the smile never quite reaches her eyes.I like Alex O'Loughlin too. He's caught a couple of bad TV breaks losing out on two series before striking gold with Hawaii Five-0. He's a fine actor, when he's paired with someone who gets his style and gives him something to play against.This, in a nutshell, is my problem with this film. Firstly, it must be said, the script is beyond terrible. It is very difficult to make cheese romantic or funny. This script does neither.Artificial insemination as the punchline... laugh... I thought I'd never start.The essence of romantic comedy is that the couple should sizzle. Alex is a handsome and athletic leading man, taking his shirt off and sitting on a tractor... sorry, one this is a horrible hackneyed and embarrassing cliché, two, other than goat's cheese and his inexplicable turn at night school (never really explained why he's going to night school to be an accountant but hey, they needed to give him something to do), he really has almost nothing to work with. He tries to give flesh to his character, Stan, and the script never makes Stan more than a cardboard cut out. Alex simply isn't the kind of actor who can work with nothing. Frustratingly, there are occasional glimpses of what might have been if he had anything to work with.Jennifer Lopez is an attractive woman with a great body and a pretty face, and yes, she can act... but this turkey... she is just going through the motions. The script has the feel of having been written for her. It has very clear milestones, which it gleefully ticks off and moves on to the next predictable trope. Again, she is capable of far more, and the script offers her nothing.Secondly, if ever there was a mis-match, this pairing is it. They are both pretty, pretty people, they have their own unique charms, but nothing about their romantic encounters sizzles. It is unforgivable in a romantic comedy that the leading couple have no chemistry.There are some amusing moments, they are few and far between. Too few, and far too far between. The plot is lazy. It's a shame, because on paper it could have been fun. It's just painful.