My Baby's Daddy is a lightweight look at fatherhood through the eyes of 3 inner-city pals who must re-examine their priorities when their girlfriends all get pregnant at the same time. Basically a ghetto version of Three Men And A Baby, My Baby's Daddy blatantly rips off the aforementioned film's best parenting bits that made much ado about doo-doo (yes, Anthony Anderson gets shot in the face by his little tyke's super soaker- not once, but twice!).

       Eddie Griffin co-wrote the script and describes the film as a statement that there is a large number of inner city fathers who take responsibility for their children and aren't all support dodging dead beats. And, I suppose he succeeds on some level as each of our "heroes" undergoes a life changing epiphany and decides to be a good dad. But, a larger statement might have been made if Griffin had decided to show us that some of these same youth were responsible enough not to get their girlfriends knocked up in the first place.

       Unfortunately, while Griffin is attempting to put a positive spin on unexpected fatherhood, he is also filling his script with a plethora of stereotypes, right down to Method Man as a recently paroled 'thug for life' who swills 40's and takes to robbing baby stores. We also have a pot smoking Asian grocer nobody understands half the time who reveals past ties to a gang. And, when Anthony Anderson's Asian girlfriend responds to his marriage proposal with 'You had me at herro' we have truly reached a low point in the film.

       The performances in the film are nothing special – all do just fine with material that doesn't require anyone to stretch. Griffin does the best work, transforming his character from a Steve Urkel-type super geek into a confident and capable father finally willing to stand up to the atrocious girlfriend who treats him like a doormat. Paula Jai Parker is his girlfriend, Rolonda, a truly horrible shrew and the sort of mother you would call Child Services on in a heartbeat. Anthony Anderson fires off a few clever zingers but his shtick seems to be wearing a little thin as I found him to be the most annoying of the 3 main characters. Michael Imperioli is nearly non-existent in terms of performance and the lack of development in his character seems to suggest the part could have been labeled 'Token White Guy'.

       My Baby's Daddy is now available on DVD in a choice of 1.85:1 widescreen or 1.33:1 full screen and 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo. Bonus features are sparse and consist of a making-of featurette with cast and crew interviews, a dozen or so deleted/extended scenes including a really horrible original ending, and a very brief gag reel that is shockingly bland considering the comedic talent in this film.

       As lighthearted social commentary, My Baby's Daddy succeeds to some degree in providing an alternative to the notion that inner-city children frequently grow up fatherless but it does so in a blatantly unoriginal way and ultimately sabotages its breaking of stereotypes by assaulting the viewer with the very stereotypes the film is attempting to dispel.