Weekend movies

Spread (2009) - I watched this mostly for Ashton Kutcher, who I think is a much better actor than he's given credit for.  Plus it's a different role from the likeable doofus that he generally plays.  In this, he's Nikki, a somewhat world-weary pretty boy in LA, almost a gigolo, who trolls for suseptible weathy women as well as beautiful babes - he never spends a night alone.  The first half was quite good, evoking the LA party scene, with witty voiceover from Nikki.  Then Nikki falls from grace (quite abruptly and, I thought, quite improbably) and falls hard for Heather, a women working the same grift that he is.  Of course things don't end well, but that's not why I thought the last third of the movie wasn't nearly as fun as the rest - the first half+ is compelling, but once Nikki gets earnest, the movie gets forced.  Not a waste of 90 minutes, but not as good as it could have been.  Maybe worthwhile - lots of very hot sex, if you like that kind of thing.

Babies (2010) - I heard good stuff about this one, and it was interesting.  However, on the box it says "no matter what parenting style you use, if a baby is surrounded by love, they thrive."  So apparently that's the point.  But I don't think the film really communicates that - there's lots of shots of babies falling over and crying, with no one responding, and a long scene where an older brother hits the baby over and over again, making him cry repeatedly, and another scene that really bothered me, of a baby laying face down in a shallow puddle, sipping water.  I'm not super overprotective, but drowning is the number one cause of death in babies under the age of 1.  Also, the showered with love aspect is really missing.  Right after the babies are born, they show mommies cuddling with them, and there's some Mommy and Me classes and such, but for whatever reason, the showering is quite absent.  During the closing credits, there is a scene with each mommy and baby where they are kissing and cooing, but that's the only time you see that.  Maybe if the box description hadn't set up my expectation, I wouldn't have noticed so much.  Maybe I'm quibbling, but while I found this movie interesting, I didn't find it compelling or especially satisfying.