My Baby's Daddy (2004) / Comedy

MPAA Rated: PG-13 for sexual content, language and some drug references
Running Time: 99 min.

Cast: Eddie Griffin, Anthony Anderson, Michael Imperioli, Marsha Thomason, Method Man, Bai Ling, John Amos, Paula Jai Parker, Joanna Bacalso  
Director: Cheryle Dunye
Screenplay: Eddie Griffin, Damon "Coke" Daniels, Brent Goldberg, David Wagner

 

 

Although it was a crowd-pleasing hit, I was never particularly keen on Three Men and a Baby.  For all of its charm, I just didn't think it that funny to see a man doing baby chores like burping or changing a diaper, while being completely inept at it.  My Baby's Daddy is an updated version of that flick, trying to play faster and hipper, but not really trying to improve on the concepts of its inspiration.  It's as if they watched Three Men and said, "What this movie really needs are a lot of fart jokes, dick jokes, and broad racial stereotypes."  What's next?  A remake of Citizen Kane where he has uncontrollable flatulence and nicknames his penis "Rosebud"?

My Baby's Daddy stars Griffin, Anderson and Imperioli as Lonnie, G, and Dominic, three lifelong friends who happen to get their girlfriends pregnant at the same time.  Lonnie is a meek geek who is too mild to do anything about his tramp girlfriend.  G is an aspiring boxer who spends his days working in a convenience store owned by his Asian girlfriend's family.  Dominic is a record producer trying to make it big bringing up the latest hip hop act.  All three are having trouble coming to terms with fatherhood, while also having relationship issues with the mother of their children.

Only the comedic talent of the cast keeps My Baby's Daddy from being too excruciating to bear, and even so, just barely.  There's just little funny about the film...not the plot, not the dialogue, not the situations, and almost none of the jokes.  It's as if the creative minds at work thought putting three funny guys together and letting them react to different situations would be enough to inspire laughs.  Eddie Griffin and the writers of one of the raunchiest comedies of all time, Van Wilder, and the result is a mean-spirited, borderline crass affair that should only be viewed by people who will laugh at anything.  By the end, it actually tries to be an affirming lesson on the importance of fatherhood, when all the while it showcases some of the rudest behavior and most offensive of characterizations, just to get a few yuks.  If you have a juvenile sense of humor, you might find it tolerable, but exposing your children to this might constitute child endangerment.

©2004 Vince Leo