October 09, 2004
Abridged(disappointed) Move Review: Mr. 3000
So I went into this movie really thinking I was going to enjoy myself, I mean come on Bernie Mac + baseball comedy... surely I can count on this to be good for some laughs right? Sadly I was incredibly underwhelmed by this flick.
Let me do a quick recap first.
Stan Ross(Bernie Mac) is an egotistical baseball player who is only out for one thing; himself, or more specifically himself getting 3000 base hits in his career.
immediately after achieving his goal Stan announces his retirement from baseball, flash forward to the present and we find out Stan has done alright for himself after retirement, he has opened up a series of businesses all of which are entitled "Mr. 3000 xxx" fill in the blank. All is going fine until during the process of one of Stan's attempts at getting voted into the hall of fame it is discovered that due to an error he was actually 3 hits short of 3000. His goal is clear, Stan must rejoin MLB and get his 3 hits so he can retire once again Mr. 3000. Along not only does he have difficulty with his age and lack of playing for years, he also must deal with his new teammates (Including Coach Gus Panas played by Paul Sorvino, who he walked out on during a pennant race years before).
So on paper this has the makings of a decent movie, maybe not the most believable storyline in the world but believable enough for a silly comedy. So what went wrong?
Well I'll start out on a positive note, most of the acting was great. Bernie surprised me with his ability, he made the character work and conveyed a wide array of emotions throughout the movie. Angela Basset gave her standard very nice performance, although I will say the chemistry between her and Bernie did seem to be a bit more on again off again than it should have been. Michael Rispoli I really liked, he is one of those actors that gets picked for some of the more background/supporting actor roles and he always gives just this cool feeling to his characters I'm not sure what it is but I do enjoy him as an actor. Paul Sorvino .. what can you say about Paul? He's a wonderful actor, but this movie was hardly a test for his ability, mostly he just sat on the bench with a scowl on his face, or walked by with a scowl on his face, but when his scene came and he got the fire in his eye that might have been one of the funniest/coolest scenes in the movie. Like I said, the acting wasn't the problem here.
Onto the not so greatness. The story on paper (or in this case on the computer screen) gives the illusion of being much more fulfilling than it actually worked out to be on film, at times it seemed very long and drawn out and there was a lot of time during the movie where it was just standing still and not progressing for what seemed like ages. Of course this is also partly due to a script that just seemed to try and build around a few gags and some jokes. Character development was handled very untidily, big character changes just seemed to happen to easily and too quickly and it really took you out of the movie and made you realize how much nonsense it really was. The ending wasn't the spectacular event that they could have (or possibly tried) to make it be. If it hadn't of been so obvious it might be a different story but the predictability just made it end on a very bland note.
All in all I would say if you want to rush out to watch a good funny baseball movie, go rent Major League and if you are a fan of Bernie Mac wait for the DVD to be released and give it a rent, otherwise there is always pay per view or HBO when the time comes. The movie was a very big disappointment to me, I truly felt that I wasted my money on the ticket.
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