Amy Schumer’s new movie Kinda Pregnant is sometimes hilarious but ultimately falls flat.

Amy Schumer is back with her first leading lady role in seven years.

In Netflix's romantic comedy Kinda Pregnant, the comedian stars as Lainy, a Brooklyn English teacher whose life takes an unexpected turn when her best friend Kate (Saturday Night Live's Jillian Bell) announces her pregnancy.

The news came as Lainey thought she was about to become engaged to her longterm boyfriend Dave (New Girl's Damon Wayans Jr.), when that doesn't happen Lainy finds herself spiraling and gets caught in a lie after she steals a fake bump from a maternity store.

Lainy is maintaining her fake pregnancy charade when she meets Megan (Ginny & Georgia's Brianne Howey) at a prenatal yoga class and reconnects with Megan's single brother Josh (Bodkin's Will Forte), who she met at a coffee shop.

Watch the trailer. Post continues after video.

If this sounds like too much to fit in one movie, you'd be right.

Kinda Pregnant is not a total disaster — but it's far from good. It's kinda okay.

I'll start with the positives and there are quite a few. Will Forte and Amy Schumer have genuine chemistry as romantic leads, every scene they shared was hilarious and heartwarming — they're magic together.

I had my reservations about Forte's casting as a rom-com leading man, as an actor most known for his scene-stealing quirky side characters, but he was perfectly cast.

It's an offbeat film so casting an offbeat character actor instead of a traditional rom-com lead was a smart choice. Along with being laugh-out-loud funny, he brings vulnerability and tenderness to the role.

Another breakout is Urzila Carlson as Schumer's unhinged vape-puffing coworker. While not every joke lands, she can't help but demand attention every moment she's on-screen, and there's a butterfly incident that gave huge lols.

This role is sure to be the first of many more for the hilarious South African comedian.

Amy Schumer and Urzila Carlson in Kinda Pregnant. Image: Netflix.

The jokes in this film are inconsistent at best, but writers Schumer and Julia Paiva's material does work when they're subverting romance tropes.

The coffee shop meet-cute between Lainy and Josh was delightfully surprising. A scene when Lainy thinks she's being proposed to by an impeccably cast Damon Wayans Jr. is another highlight.

The sex scene was hilarious, as Schumer didn't shy away from exploring just how unsexy sexual positions are in real life. A babysitting scene when Lainey reads tabloid magazines about the Kardashians as bedtime stories was another stroke of genius.

Then there's the final scene that truly takes rom-com endings and smashes the trope to bits and left me howling in laughter.

These were glimmers of what this movie could have been, but sadly these moments were few and far between. As were the actual meaningful discussion on pregnancy. One compelling scene saw Howey open up about the unspoken trauma of birth, but like a lot of this film, it was a revelation that didn't go anywhere.

The crux of this film's problem is that even though it's a film about friendship, it doesn't seem concerned with making the viewer invested in Lainey and Jillian Bell's character's relationship.

Their friendship feels like an afterthought, removing any stakes the viewer might have in rooting for them.

Despite Bell being the comedic force she is, she is wasted in Kinda Pregnant. 

But the main issue lies with Schumer's character, whose motivations for doing basically everything she does in this movie is unclear.

Lainy's decision to fake being pregnant stems from misery rather than anything fun to play off, making her come across as childish, self-pitying and self-absorbed.

Amy Schumer in Kinda Pregnant. Image: Netflix. 

And while Schumer shines in the funnier moments, she struggles to capture the needed emotional depth for the more serious scenes.

Then there was the physical comedy throughout this film that leaned heavily into slapstick. The film is produced by Adam Sandler's Happy Madison Productions and yeah… you can tell.

In another comedy, this would have been fine, but in a movie tackling delicate subjects like pregnancy, some of these scenes came across as completely tone-deaf.

There are several scenes where Lainy falls on her pregnant belly which are played off for a lazy joke. In one scene, her apparent pregnant belly is even set on fire. I was disturbed. It's just as jarring as you'd expect, especially when no one thinks to call an ambulance.

The slapstick elements often fall flat and border on foolish and illogical. The amount of times Lainy shoves random objects under her dress (including a balloon and a cooked turkey) and no one blinks an eye just infantilises the audience.

In an Adam Sandler comedy, this might have worked, but for a movie that (at least tries to) engage in pregnancy discourse, these nonsensical plot points don't pass muster.

If you're looking for a movie that explores friendship and motherhood, I'd recommend skipping Kinda Pregnant and watching Babes instead. The film (available on Prime Video) is written by and stars Broad City's Illana Glazer who was inspired by her own pregnancy journey.

No spoilers, but Babes is much better in, err… every possible way.

Feature image: Netflix.