"Soul Men" is soul food for the heart, and the multiplex.

Let's say it: You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll come out of the theater humming "I'm Your Puppet."

Bring a hankie. Bernie Mac, so funny, so talented, died last August at age 50 from pneumonia. "Soul Men" serves as a grand epitaph for a man who emerged in "The Original Kings of Comedy" and whose warm, family-friendly "The Bernie Mac Show" was a TV hit for five years.

In "Soul Men," he plays Floyd Henderson, a retired backup singer, who, along with Louis Hinds (scintillating Samuel L. Jackson), toured the country as a duo with their smooth, Pips-like choreography and sweet sounds after lead Marcus Hooks (John Legend) went off to establish a solo career.

Years later, Hooks dies of a heart attack while performing, and crotchety Henderson and Hinds are corralled for a VH1 tribute concert at New York City's legendary Apollo Theater. Problem is, the men despise each other; dormant wounds over women and money never healed.

Their patter is risquŽ: "You should not dig for diamonds in another man's mine," says Jackson.

The hardest working man in show business (he averages four to five films a year), Jackson turns in a crafty performance as a dreadlocks-wearing ex-con who lost his royalties in a poker game and lives now in a ratty apartment.

Mac's Henderson, meanwhile, invested wisely, including in a car wash with sexy female attendants. Creeping old age, though, has depressed him. He has an artificial hip, is bored with playing golf and yearns for the old, glory days on the road.

"Soul Men" has raw language and raucous sexual escapades, including a wild one featuring Mac and the robust Jennifer Coolidge (from "Best in Show"), who picks him up in a country bar where the men, on their way to New York, stop to work on their tunes.

Says she, "I've never been with someone so old."

Responds he, "You're no teen queen yourself."

Mac is brilliant, performing with a looseness similar to his stage demeanor. It's not just what he says that's funny but how he says it.

Director Malcolm Lee, who guided stand-ups Martin Lawrence, Mo'Nique, Mike Epps and Cedric the Entertainer in the engaging "Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins," handles the pair gingerly, letting them riff, jazzlike at times, reigning them in when needed.

Their road trip to New York in Mac's lime-green Cadillac Eldorado with the license plates MUTHASHP includes a stop in front of a dozen or so folks at the Flagstaff Motor Inn. Trying to hit a high note on "Hold On, I'm Coming," a button flies off Mac's thickening waistline, a guy in the audience getting struck in the head.

There's a classic vignette on the side of a dusty highway, the car saddled with a flat tire. One of their old hits, "I'm Your Puppet," comes across the radio ("No. 3 in 1969," barks the disc jockey). Mac and Jackson take a moment to re-create their old steps right there, outside, dusty shoes moving on the pavement like it was 1969 all over again.

Stopping in Memphis, they return to the home of the late, special woman in their lives and find that her daughter (luminous Sharon Leal, from "Dreamgirls") is in an abusive relationship with a petty drug-dealer boyfriend. Jackson, hardened from years in the penitentiary, takes care of business.

In the end, Henderson and Hinds find themselves on stage at the Apollo with Leal joining them for a joyous "Do Your Thing."

Over the closing credits, there's a touching Bernie Mac tribute, the gifted comedian chatting about "not cheating the audience ... you want to leave a lasting impression, leave them something to remember."

He left the heartbreaking, hilarious "Soul Men."

"Soul Men." Rated: R. Running time: 1 hour, 43 minutes. 3.5 stars.

To find out more about Lee Grant and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2008 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.