My Baby's Daddy (2004) starring Eddie Griffin, Anthony Anderson, Michael Imperioli, Paula Jai Parker, Joanna Bacalso, Bai Ling, Marsha Thomason directed by Cheryl Dunye Movie Review

My Baby's Daddy (2004)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Eddie Griffin as Lonnie in My Baby's Daddy (2004)

Three Men and Three babies

A movie about 3 childhood friends who have grown up and lived together all becomes dads at the same time; I bet you can guess what that means "My Baby's Daddy" consists of. Yes we have 3 men dealing with the trials and tribulations of parenthood and just for good measure as these 3 men have never really grown up they find being a dad leads them to grow up. That wouldn't be so bad because in reality movies about instant parenthood are not uncommon and they all tread a similar part except that seeing this is a comedy it is one of the unfunniest comedies going.

Lonnie, Dominic and G (Eddie Griffin, Michael Imperioli and Anthony Anderson) have known each other since they were babes in the crib and now as adults they live in a crib together or at least Lonnie's uncle's home. But their laid back life of partying is turned upside down when each of them end up getting their girlfriend pregnant and becoming dads on the same day. But with each of them having their own dreams there needs to be changes as they realise they need to man up and grow up to be good dads.

Michael Imperioli and Anthony Anderson in My Baby's Daddy (2004)

Forget the styling for the moment, and to be honest that is easy because there is little style, and what we have is a run of the mill parenthood movie. I suppose the only difference is that we have 3 best friends all becoming dads at the same time because beyond that we follow a very familiar line of story. We have these friends struggling with smelly nappies, baby food and so on as well as trying to man up and get the respect of their loved ones. That is it, there is no more depth or originality to it and so you end up watching pretty much knowing what will happen and hoping there will be some laughs along the way.

But that is a sticking point because as comedies go "My Baby's Daddy" is one of the unfunniest movies going. The simple gags featuring smelly nappies are never played upon and the whole humour of Lonnie, Dominic and G's individual romantic tribulations is also pretty flat. It becomes a case that we have a few set pieces thrown in from Lonnie being pimped up for a date to G's best friend robbing a baby store and asking what he needs. But none of it is funny, it is not until the end and we get what happened to each dad, what they went on to do that it actually gets a laugh.

Now all of this makes it disappointing especially when you see that "My Baby's Daddy" stars Eddie Griffin, Anthony Anderson and Michael Imperioli because none of them really shine. Of course these three are not helped by poor characters but even then there is nothing we haven't seen before and it becomes monotonous.

What this all boils down to is that "My Baby's Daddy" takes an already often used story and does nothing of interest with it. But worse than that, for a movie which is a simple comedy it barely manages to get a laugh.


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