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Kid is finally ready to settle down with the girl he loves. Play respects his decision, although he doesn’t agree with it. But, while he can’t and won’t stop the wedding from happening, he can at least throw the best bachelor party the world has ever seen. His plans run into a snag when business mixes with pleasure. Play uses money given to him as a finders fee for a budding new music group to fund the festivities. The band doesn’t sign with Play, however, and now the tour promoter wants his non-existent cash back. Sounds like they’re in for one wild night.

The third installment of the trilogy almost brings it back to the level of the first film. First-time writer Takashi Buford (who worked on the story with “In Living Color” writer David Toney) breaks away from all the horrible things the sequel incorporated and focused mostly on the house parties – which is how it should be. So this time, you won’t find a lot of references to jokes from the other two movies, if any. I give it credit for creating it essentially from scratch, but it still doesn’t cook quite right.

Since this is the third film with the third first-time writer and third first-time director (Eric Meza), it’s pretty easy to assume that most of the characters won’t be back. Most noticeably absent is Martin Lawrence’s Bilal, whose puppy-dogging behavior has been replaced by Play’s cousin Stinky (David Edwards, ousted member of “Real World: Los Angeles”). Stinky’s name can easily describe his comedic talents as well as what I think of his role. Sydney has been replaced, almost inexplicably by Vera (Angela Means), but Tisha Campbell does still appear in the movie for a couple scenes. But, instead of dwelling on all the secondary characters that also do not return for another episode, let’s focus on the new people on the block.

Kid’s young cousins (played by and as pre-teen group Immature) come by and start all sorts of trouble. These little rapscallions hit on all the women and swindle their way into throwing a killer party of their own. Uncle Vester (Bernie Mac) shows up too, for whatever reason, and of course makes everyone’s life a little harder. Mac steals every scene he’s in and provides much-needed comedic outbursts. I could easily watch one hundred minutes of him riffing on various things and commenting on plot points. It’d be more entertaining than hearing some of the lame jokes the rest of the cast delivers. But probably my favorite character was Crazy Sam, who shows up only twice to wreak havoc on everything. His appearances are short, but that’s perfect. More would be overkill.

So, number three is a lot funnier than two but not quite at the level of one. The movie doesn’t quite exude the same playful vibe that the series should have. It’s actually kind of dark and seedy at times, which completely contradicts the whole light-hearted comedy thing. I wish the plot came together a little better and some of the more important issues were clarified (especially why Sydney and Kid broke up). But as far as second sequels go, this isn’t all that terrible.

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