Genre: Comedy

My Baby's Daddy

Directed by Cheryl Dunye

Written by Damon Daniels,

Brent Goldberg, Eddie Griffin

and David Wagner

Starring Eddie Griffin, Anthony

Anderson and Michael Imperioli

Rating: **

When studios choose not to show movies to the press ahead of their theatrical release, the usual reason is that they're trying to limit losses by keeping the negative buzz to a minimum (remember The Avengers?).

In other cases, a movie such as My Baby's Daddy is held from the press not so much because it has the aroma of a full diaper, but because reviews are irrelevant. Lowbrow, popular and patched together around slapstick jokes, the movie is no worse than an evening watching television, but it is not going to get those four-star raves, so why waste the cost of a press screening?

Loosely based on Three Men and a Baby, the movie is sentimental and reliant on bodily-function humour, but it also has a generous spirit, a multicultural rainbow of characters, and a social message about approaching fatherhood responsibly. Four writers are listed, but the movie feels as if they may not actually have worked together. There are some funny moments of shtick from comedians Anthony Anderson (Meet the Andersons) and co-writer Eddie Griffin (The New Guy), along with some amusing cameos (rapper Method Man as an ex-con turned organic cook), but the overall effect is far more miss than hit.

Through some scientific accident that requires further study, three bachelors who share a house discover on the same day that their girlfriends are pregnant. G (Anderson) -- who also provides voice-over narration -- is a would-be boxer, though he's overweight and has a glass jaw. He works in a local variety store, where he gets his boss's daughter Xi-Xi (Bai Ling) pregnant. (Cue way too many tired jokes about Asians named Bling-Bling and Ding-A-Ling.)

Lonnie (Griffin) is a nerdy would-be inventor who has been infatuated since childhood with Ro-Ro (Paula Jai Parker), a curvy floozy who treats him like dirt, and is more than happy to hand parental duties over to him while she gets high and drunk with her mother.

Dominic (The Sopranos' Michael Imperioli), manager of a horrible white hip-hop duo, fancies himself a player but when the beautiful Nia (Joanna Bacalso) becomes pregnant after their fling, she subsequently falls in love with her midwife.

Having their masculine pride eroded by the realities of poopy diapers and squirting pee, the men begin to realize what really matters. Lonnie gets over a brief attempt to be a suave pimp to impress a woman in his Mommy and Me class. G bonds with his girlfriend's Asian father over a joint and a bottle of malt liquor. And Dominic convinces Nia that he can be a helpful third parent to their daughter.

There's an idea or two here, though the movie (directed by Cheryl Dunye) often feels as choppy as if it were fed through a Mixmaster. Sequences of computer-generated talking babies are more unnerving than funny, and the repetitive flatulence and Chinese-mispronunciation jokes feel more stale than offensive. The antic, energetic performances are game, but they're overwhelmed by erratic pacing and disorganized writing.

While this may not be a rave to print over the marquis, My Baby's Daddy has just enough going for it, you honestly wish it was better.