( CNN ) -- Hollywood loves a cash cow , and Heidi Murkoff 's pregnancy bible surely qualifies . It spent more than a decade on The New York Times ' best-seller lists , and there are some 17 million copies in print . So what if there 's no story ? There 's a name -- and as all parents know , that 's a major achievement in itself . So , what to expect from `` What to Expect When You 're Expecting '' -- the movie ? Like other recent `` concept '' films , those cynical date movies -- `` Valentine 's Day '' and `` New Year 's Eve '' for instance -- the film wears a celebrity-studded thong to cover any perceived shortcomings in the script department . They come in all shapes and sizes , new and old . Kids your kids will know like Anna Kendrick , and Chace Crawford , TV personalities like `` Glee 's '' Matthew Morrison and Cheryl Cole ( playing herself ) rubbing shoulders with inescapable media magnets like Chris Rock and Jennifer Lopez . We even get celebrities playing celebrities : Cameron Diaz as motivational weight-loss guru/dance show winner Jules , Elizabeth Banks as baby store owner/nursery book author Wendy , Dennis Quaid as Wendy 's overbearing father-in-law , an ex-NASCAR champ , Ramsey . These are n't people you meet in my neighborhood , but types we know well from talk shows and supermarket tabloids , and see , here 's the point , when it comes to obstetrics , they 're just like you and me : anxious , nauseous , excited , and at the mercy of the fates . Screenwriters Shauna Cross and Heather Hach hop between half a dozen couples , most of them residents of Atlanta , and each allocated a representative pregnancy issue . Holly and Alex ( Lopez and Rodrigo Santoro ) are adopting a Kenyan baby , but he 's getting cold feet and she 's losing her best-paid gig . Rival food cart chefs Rosie and Marco ( Kendrick and Crawford ) get pregnant on their first date , and do n't know if they 're ready to remake `` Knocked Up '' so soon . Meanwhile Wendy wants everything to be just perfect but is n't prepared for the gas . ... The jokes are feeble and the conflicts never transcend sitcom material -- in other words , `` What to Expect When You 're Expecting '' is entirely predictable and not a little redundant . The days when the movies would discreetly close the door when a woman went into labor ( `` Hot water , and lots of it ! '' ) are long gone . It 's been nearly 30 years since Murkoff 's book was first published , and there 's hardly an aspect of pregnancy that has n't been channeled into Hollywood clichÃ© . Which is n't to deny there 's something reassuring about seeing other people going through this stuff one more time . Perhaps the saddest aspect of what is largely , admittedly , an inoffensive and anodyne enterprise , is the sad spectacle of Rock and chums wheeling strollers through the park in the service of lame gags about baby-whipped dads . As far as we 've come , it would seem that half the world 's parents are still little more than a laughingstock . Final word : not worth the sitter .
The film is based on Russ Meyer 's short story . The jokes are feeble and the conflicts never resemble sitcom material , " Charity says . ` ` What to Expect When You 're Expecting '' is entirely predictable , the director says .