Junior Review

Junior
Rogue medic Arbogast (DeVito) cajoles colleague Dr. Alexander Hesse (Schwarzenegger) into joining a controversial experiment. Before you know it, the Austrian Oak's abdomen is playing host to an embryo - implanted supposedly for three months. But Arnie starts to enjoy being up the duff and decides to see out the full term.

by Jeff Dawson |
Published on
Release Date:

09 Dec 1994

Running Time:

110 minutes

Certificate:

PG

Original Title:

Junior

The very notion of Arnold Schwarzenegger getting pregnant - although posing some uncomfortable biological questions - may not, given the advance of science, be such an impossible idea. And it certainly makes for a fascinating movie prospect.

Junior is so "high concept" it could have snow on it. In fact, you can almost hear the studio exec being pitched by some hopeful scriptwriter: "Arnold gets pregnant." Herein lies the problem, for were it just an Ordinary Joe rather than the bicepular-one who suddenly found himself nurturing a sprog, you feel there would have been more scope for the expected gender-swapping hilarity.

As it is, the laughs are gained not so much from the idea of man-as-mother, as largely at the expense of the Sperminator playing against type. Director Reitman also fails to resist harping back to the big-concept of his earlier Twins, with numerous sight gags based on the physical disparities 'twixt the male leads.

A daft movie, but one not without its moments of healthy radiance, spurred on by some bristling gags and a welcome comic return by Emma Thompson as a gauche fellow doctor caught in a romantic sub-plot.

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