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Beloved comedian Bernie Mac enjoyed a popularity and career that was complex, to say the least. While fans of Mac’s blue stand-up act were accustomed to raw profanity and risqué references to sex, Mac offered his TV and movie audiences a more family-friendly version of his rawness.

His disparate performance paths come together in one of his final films, “Soul Men,” which, ironically, also stars musician Isaac Hayes, who died on August 10, one day after Mac passed away from complications of sarcoidosis and pneumonia.

In “Soul Men,” Mac and Samuel L. Jackson play members of a has-been soul act from the 1970’s, The Real Deal, which used to sport big afros and polyester suits with matching patent leather shoes.  More than 30 years later, Floyd Henderson (Mac) and Louis Hinds (Jackson) decide to join forces again to sing at the Apollo Theater memorial of their former bandleader, Marcus Hooks (John Legend). The result, as the two travel from Los Angeles to New York, is a movie that is part buddy flick, part road trip and part cheesy comedy — with the cheesy comedy taking up most of the plot.

The comedy of these two stars and director Malcolm Lee includes inevitable jokes about middle age and aging: Two old dogs arguing about their younger years, who stole who’s woman, who still has it going on, who can still pull the honeys on the road. The duo is challenged to do it like they used to with new health concerns, like a hip replacement, coughing fits and Floyd’s need to pop a blue pill before lovemaking. Depending on your taste (and maybe your gender), all these goings on will strike you as funny or sad, or some combination of the two. You might feel uncomfortable, like you’re sitting in on some private conversation between your father’s friends — filled with plenty of MFs, street references to a woman’s anatomy and, in general, too much information.

On the positive side, there are some great moments of chemistry between Mac and Jackson. During one, the two re-create some of the smooth stage routine of The Real Deal, after changing a flat tire in the middle of the desert. They successfully carry off the part of two aging soul singers who recall slowly the old lyrics, steps and magic. And even though it is cliché, you can’t help but enjoy a scene when the two old-heads teach a lesson to some young punks, who don’t know how to treat a woman and don’t know how to respect their elders. Hayes makes a cameo appearance as a womanizing Nashville record producer who shares a wink with Hinds and Henderson about the side benefits of mentoring young female artists.

There was the potential for “Soul Men” to be better produced, funnier and a richer tribute to a rich era in black music. As it stands, it is only mildly amusing. This isn’t Mac’s last film, however. He listed as a narrator in an upcoming TV reality show and stars in another film, “Old Dogs,” scheduled to be released next year. “Soul Men” does offer us one more chance to see Bernie Mac bring his brand of manic complexity to the big screen.

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Esther Iverem is founder of SeeingBlack.com and author of We Gotta Have It: Twenty Years of Seeing Black at the Movies, 1986-2006.

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