Oh, yes, it's January. That means that Oscar season is upon the masses. The critically acclaimed films are beginning to trickle into mass release, and studious unceremoniously dump the rest of their films onto an unsuspecting public. 2003 gave people National Security and Kangaroo Jack, and 2002 yielded Impostor and Snow Dogs. Miramax inauspiciously welcomes you to 2004 with My Baby's Daddy, and for another hint of how much they want to market this film look at their wonderfully generic Miramax website. Yes, it stars Eddie Griffin and Anthony Andersen! It's an urban take on 3 Men and a Baby, only with three babies! Remember, no one was really asking for this. And, as horrifying as all this sounds, the film is only mildly bad, which may or may not be a good thing.
The film is essentially about three immature men who grow up quickly after they become fathers. G (Andersen, Scary Movie 3, Malibu's Most Wanted), Lonnie (Griffin, Scary Movie 3, DysFunktional Family) and Dom (Michael Imperioli, Summer of Sam, Love in the Time of Money) were childhood friends, now grown-up and living with Lonnie's uncle. G is works at the Hoagie Hut, and is dating XiXi (Bai Ling, Anna and the King, Wild Wild West), whose father and entire family works there and dislikes him. Dom, has a fling with Nia (Joanna Belasco, Snow Dogs, Dude, Where's My Car?), who works in the same record studio as him, and Lonnie has been pining after Rolanda (Paula Jai Parker, Phone Booth, High Crimes) since he was a child. She puts up with him, only because he keeps giving her money. Well, all three couples find themselves pregnant, and shortly after find three new children in their lives.
My Baby's Daddy is more clumsy than anything else. Griffin, who co-wrote the script with Damon 'Coke' Daniels, and Brent Goldberg and David Wagner (National Lampoon's Van Wilder) use the film as nothing more than an extended series of jokes for bumbling guys doubling as fathers, while hastily throwing in a happy ending. Everything about the film is disposable, and most of it exits the mind quickly after watching it. It's almost admirable how many African-American stereotypes director Cheryl Dunye, The Watermelon Woman, Greetings from Africa) can throw out, and if it's any consolation, she equally mangles Asians with the portrayal of XiXi's family. Method Man (How High, Belly) even shows up for more randomness.
Well, one can argue that this movie has no redeeming value, and is only around to make people laugh, but it doesn't even do that. There are a few smiles, but Dunye is not doing anything that hasn't been done before on the big or small screen. Trying to turn the film into a romantic comedy then having her men mature doesn't help either. There is no consistent tone to the film, it just jumps from one situation to the next. Lonnie needs to change from a nerd to a man to attract the fetching Brandy (Marsha Thomason, The Haunted Mansion, Black Knight), who is in his Mommy and Me class. As the title implies, it's all about the men, and not the babies, and since there are three of men, Dunye can touch on all of them without going into any depth. My Baby's Daddy isn't quite bad, it's just forgettable.