There was no film released last year quite as bittersweet a release as Soul Men. Sweet because the chemistry between Bernie Mac and Samuel L. Jackson was undeniable. Bitter, well for two reasons. The first was the death of two of its stars, music legend Isaac Hayes and the aforementioned Mac. The second was, well, the movie wasn't really any good. It's not that it's not very watchable, it's just that it will leave you wanting for the movie that could have been. And one needn't watch the special features to see where this went wrong. But the features sure as hell confirm all of your suspicions.

The problem was simple. They had two big-name stars with epic personalities who were also very close friends who had never been able to work together and very much wanted to. So they contacted some producers who put a film into motion. Those producers hired writers to slap a plot together around these two titans, this one involving two backup singers traveling cross-country to perform at the funeral of their legendary one-time frontman in the hopes of scoring a comeback. Lazy writing coupled with a strong premise time and again fails magnificently -- constantly teasing us with great ideas only to provide the flimsiest of explanations as to how we get from point A to point B.

In the hands of better writers or producers this could have been Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Because, while the writing is weak, the jokes lame and the plot a rehash of dozens of other films, every moment in which Jackson and Mac are on screen playing off of one another is comedy gold. This pairing had the makings of being one of the classic team-ups -- a Hope and Crosby with a hint of Lemmon and Matthau. OK, with a LOT of Lemmon and Matthau. If Lemmon and Matthau used the F-word. A lot.

Together these guys are funny, each providing their own piece of incredible chemistry that makes this movie worth seeking out despite its vast number of flaws. And when the film plays its final notes and rolls the credits, there's a good chance you might be in tears. I sure was. They start playing "Never Can Say Goodbye," by Isaac Hayes, and then show clips of Bernie Mac talking about his art. And it's kind of hard not to mist up a bit. This is followed by some clips of Bernie entertaining the crowd and then a nice tribute to Hayes -- it puts the whole film in perspective.

Sadly, the DVD extras don't live up to the film's ending. While there are tributes to both Mac and Hayes on the disc, neither manages to capture the emotional highs of the film's credit sequence. They're very dry remembrances that almost feel like they were cut together by someone who didn't feel their loss or know quite how to celebrate their extraordinary lives. It's a bit of a letdown. There are some behind-the-scenes extras that really accentuate the film's flaws and how the film came together just the way these projects shouldn't. The disc's best feature is an assemblage of Mac's performances while entertaining the extras during the shooting of the film's final sequence. If the film doesn't remind you of what a great stand-up comedian he was, this routine will. The guy really knew how to connect to an audience and sell a joke.

Soul Men is available February 10 from Dimension Home Entertainment.

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