Junior (1994)

IMDb plot summary: As part of a fertility research project, a male scientist agrees to carry a pregnancy in his own body.
Directed by Ivan Reitman. Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito, Emma Thompson, and Frank Langella.

When I saw somebody had gifted me this for my movie challenge, I was *not* excited. I anticipated it being awful and ridiculous and full of ugly stereotypes of women. To my surprise, it was just... kinda flat and cheesy. Which, again, isn't good, but it's so much better than I thought it would be. Feels more like goofy dad jokes than anything else. I think I have to attribute that to Arnold Schwarzenegger's surprisingly understated performance. The script does call for him to say and do some ridiculous things, but he underplays it in a way that seems almost... subtle? Maybe I can chalk this up to him not being a terribly good comedic actor, but this movie would have been 10 times worse if we had had, say, a Jim Carrey style comedian in here who was going to hype up every little line and action and make it a larger-than-life performance. Schwarzenegger's milder demeanor means that none of the jokes get pushed TOO hard (even if they also never land) and there's a bit of sympathy for the character, too, since he seems more like a normal person than anything else. It's not a GOOD movie or anything, I didn't laugh, but it's much more inoffensive than I anticipated. Yay?

How it entered my Flickchart:
Junior < Must Love Dogs
Junior < Cries and Whispers
Junior > Stuart Little 2
Junior < Crumb
Junior > Lockdown
Junior < Penelope
Junior < Silverado
Junior < Show Boat (1951)
Junior > Giant
Junior > A Prairie Home Companion
Junior > Fist Fight
Junior < Enter the Void

Final spot: #2386 out of 2839.