Casey Phillips: It might be ironic to say this a week after reviewing a kung-fu movie (“The Forbidden Kingdom”) but my experience with “Baby Mama” reminded me of dining at a Chinese buffet. In the theater, I gorged on scene after scene of absurd hilarity surrounding the “Odd Couple-esque” pairing of a successful business woman, Kate Holbrook (Tina Fey), with an immature redneck, Angie Ostrowiski (Amy Poehler). Within a half hour of leaving, however, I was feeling empty and unable to point to why it was funny.

Holly Leber: Chinese food generally makes me feel like I need mouthwash, which fortunately this film didn’t do, but it’s not a staying comedy. Oh, it’s funny. A lot of the humor comes in bursts, rather than a current. This is not intelligent, witty comedy. It’s essentially a movie written around a series of punch lines. One of my favorites was unspoken: a Post-It with the words “be fertile” on it. That’s something my mother would do.

Casey: Despite a lack of lasting enjoyment from watching “Baby Mama,” as you said, there are funny moments. Some, including the now-overplayed scene from the trailer of Ostrowiski struggling with a baby-proofed toilet, are amusing enough to stand out even as you struggle to remember what happened during the downtime between them. While Fey and Poehler are hardly Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, their comedic interplay has obviously been well-honed after four years co-hosting Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update.

Holly: The supporting actors also deserve credit. Steve Martin, complete with ponytail and floral shirts, was an unexpected treat as Kate’s granola, touchyfeely boss. I also loved the presence of Holland Taylor as her politically incorrect mother.

Casey: Another supporting role I enjoyed was Holbrook’s doorman, Oscar, played by Romany Malco. In a movie that dwells on intimately feminine topics, I appreciated how he gave voice to my mental, male reactions to these uncomfortable subjects. Also, his experience with “baby mama drama,” as he put it, provided for some really funny reactions to Holbrook’s situation. Plot-wise, the film raises some questions about surrogate parenting, but it doesn’t dig too deep, which is good since that’s an ideological quagmire that would have weighed the film down.

Holly: Of course, some aspects of the movie spoke to me in a way they wouldn’t have affected my partnerin-crime, such as grimacing at the reference to 37 as an advanced maternal age or really sympathizing with Kate’s jealousy of Angie’s ability to carry a baby. There’s a line in the movie: “There’s no wrong way to make a family,” which rang very true for a lot of reasons. There were definitely aspects of the movie that are, expectedly, more food-forthought for women, but the film never crosses the line into maudlin. Making a comedy about surrogacy is pretty risky because there’s a risk of offense, but they did a good job of avoiding that.

Casey: After watching “Baby Mama” I’m interested to see how Poehler and Fey’s next, seemingly inevitable, collaboration turns out. They have an established comedic repartee on screen, proving they have greater legs together than their work on Saturday Night Live. I’d love another duo to replace Chris Farley and David Spade on my list of must-see pairings because Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly aren’t cutting it for me.

Holly: Well, yeah, I’d say the women’s legs are much better. Will Ferrell just can’t pull off high heels as well as Tina Fey.

REVIEWED THIS WEEK

Film: “Baby Mama”

What it’s about: A babyobsessed business woman tries everything to get pregnant before hiring a childish surrogate mother to make her dreams come true.

Stars: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Greg Kinnear

Rating: PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, language and a drug reference