Netflix And Chill: Kinda Pregnant (2025)

When I saw the trailer for this latest Amy Schumer comedy I must say that I wasn't keen to see it. It didn't look good, but I knew I would inevitably get around to it sooner or later. Well, here we are, much sooner than I expected. And let me start off by just saying that Kinda Pregnant is actually kinda funny.

Schumer plays Lainy Newton, a woman who is thrown for a bit of a loop when her best friend, Kate (Jillian Bell), falls pregnant as Lainy sees her life fall apart. Her boyfriend (Damon Wayans Jr.) turns out to be no good, and Kate ends up sharing a lot of her time with another mum-to-be, Shirley (Lizze Broadway). Trying on a fake maternity bump, Lainy is immediately uplifted by the reactions of strangers around her, which is why she decides to repeat the experience, eventually heading to a yoga class for pregnant women, where she meets Megan (Brianne Howey). The pair fast become firm friends, which means that Lainy has to keep up the charade of being pregnant, even when she starts to develop a relationship with Megan's brother-in-law, Josh (Will Forte). 

Co-written by Schumer and Julie Paiva, Kinda Pregnant is directed by Tyler Spindel, who seems to have generally improved with each subsequent feature that he's helmed (although he's also been the director on a Rob Schneider TV special, but bills have got to be paid, I guess). It clocks in at about 97 minutes, paces the gags well on the way to a predictable third act, and actually has something running underneath all of the comedy that speaks to how women are treated differently, and have different expectations placed on them, when they have, or are about to have, children.

Schumer has fun in the lead role, whether being in appropriate in front of the classroom full of children she is teaching or being forgetful about the pregnant status she is showing to the world, and many laughs are shared with Bell, Howey, and Broadway. There's also a bit of scene-stealing from Urzila Carlson, who is hilariously blunt and ridiculous for a lot of the runtime, and Wayans Jr. is a very amusing jackass. Forte gets to be super-sweet throughout, and he does a great job of that, while Chris Geere, Alex Moffat, and Joel David Moore are all good fun as three very different husbands/expectant fathers.

A lot of the jokes are obvious, and most of them revolve around pratfalls or people saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, but they still made me laugh, and one or two made me laugh hard (a silly little gag about a restaurant band name was my favourite, I won't spoil it here, despite it just being very silly). This is easy enough to throw on and enjoy for the disposable entertainment it is, and it is the best thing that Amy Schumer has been Amy Schumer-y in for years.

6/10

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Pokémon Detective Pikachu (2019)

The extent of my Pokémon knowledge is very limited. I know that people have "gotta catch 'em all". I know the best way to get Pikachu on a bus . . . poke 'im on. And I know that the mobile game was massively successful, and seemed to be the latest thing that everyone was obsessed with when it was released, for all of a month. I was also vaguely aware of the Detective Pikachu videogame. That's it. So I am not sure if it is a good or bad thing that I enjoyed this movie so much.

Justice Smith plays Tim Goodman, a young man who travels to tidy up some affairs after the death of his father, Harry. He ends up finding a Pikachu that seemed to belong to his father. He can even understand what it is saying, while others only hear sounds like "pika pika". The pair team up to find out what happened to Harry, which leads them to big battles, interrogating a creature that communicates via the medium of mime, and crossing paths with Mewtwo.

I've looked into this (these reviews aren't just slapped together without any care or effort, you know . . . not all the time anyway) and it seems that Pokémon Detective Pikachu is an entertaining movie that manages to satisfy both fans and newcomers alike. There are numerous nods and references scattered throughout every scenes, and the main storyline makes good use of some familiar characters. If you're going to make a movie from this particular brand, this isn't a bad way to go about it.

Smith is a good young lead, and he quickly builds a nice chemistry with his Pikachu (voiced by Ryan Reynolds). The two are a classic mis-matched duo, and Pikachu is nicely realised with some perfect CGI. Having said that, I cannot think of any mis-steps here, on a visual level. Every character is rendered in a way that aligns with their traits (some are a bit more cartoonish, some more realistic) and the production design is often gorgeous. As for the other humans, Bill Nighy and Ken Watanabe lend their not-inconsiderable talents to the proceedings, and it's amusing to watch them have some fun, Kathryn Newton is a plucky investigative journalist, Lucy Stevens, and has great onscreen presence, and you have some fun support from Chris Geere, Suki Waterhouse, Rita Ora, and Karan Soni (the latter two having much less screentime than the others).

Director Rob Letterman also helped to write the screenplay with Dan Hernandez, Benji Samit, and Derek Connolly, from a story also co-created with Nicole Perlman, and this may be his best work yet. His animated movies always felt like second-tier efforts (especially Shark Tale), but his live-action work has been on a steady upward trajectory, from Gulliver's Travels to Goosebumps and now this. 

What could have been a painful cash-in is instead an impressive and amusing detective flick that benefits from the care taken with it, from the writing to the many details tucked away in every scene. Although not a traditional Pokémon story, it manages to treat all of the characters, and the whole universe, with respect. Fans of the series should have a lot of fun with this, and movie fans who don't know much about the games can also have a lot of fun. I THINK it's a very good Pokémon movie, but I KNOW it's a very good movie.

8/10

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Shudder Saturday: Deadtectives (2018)

Over the past few years, there have been a number of films that show paranormal investigators getting themselves in trouble when they investigate hauntings that turn out to be real. One of the best of these films is still The Frighteners, from back in 1996, but there have been a fair few decent ones to choose from in recent years (many of them, such as the Grave Encounters movies, making use of the found footage format).

Deadtectives is another one. It's a horror comedy about, yes, a team of paranormal investigators who are used to faking supernatural activity for better results on their show. They're facing cancellation, which is why the season finale needs to be a big deal, and that's how they end up in what is allegedly the most haunted house in Mexico. They soon start to delve into their usual bag of tricks, but it's not long until the tricks aren't needed. The spirits start to come out, and they're deadly.

Co-written and directed by Tony West (David Clayton Rogers is the other main writer, although a number of people worked on the main story idea), Deadtectives is a horror comedy that manages to be entertaining throughout, just, but doesn't supply either enough scares or laughs. It has some fun ideas though, especially once it gets over the halfway mark, but it could have been greatly improved by some extra time spent working on the characters or committing to some extra bloodshed and gore throughout.

The cast do well enough. The main quartet are played by Chris Geere (not as strong as he could be in the role of Sam, the main host, but he's fine), Tina Ivlev (as Kate, the one who struggles most with the morality of what they are doing), David Newman (Lloyd, who spends a lot of time modifying equipment and being prepared for actual supernatural activity), and José María de Tavira (Javier, who becomes more interesting after a major plot development in the second half). Martha Higareda is Abril, a new figure hoping to raise the standard of the show, and there are a number of decent performances from those playing the spirits who reside in the house.

Although obviously not working with the biggest budget or selection of resources, what is on display here is done well. Production design is solid, the camerawork and cinematography is actually impressive, and CGI is used well, especially in the third act. Considering everything as a whole, West has created an impressive little film for his directorial feature. The problems lie in the script, with both the dialogue and the character interactions lacking something that could have made this much more enjoyable.

I rate it above average, it's trying to do something a little bit different and it's trying to do it well. And even while it's not succeeding . . . it consistently aims to provide viewers with a sense of fun. A lot of other films seem to forget how important that can be.

6/10

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