Mr. 3000 Review
by Harvey S. Karten (harveycritic AT cs DOT com)September 20th, 2004
MR. 3000
Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
Touchstone Pictures
Grade: C
Directed by: Charles Stone III
Written by: Eric Champnella, Keith Mitchell, Howard Michael Gould
Cast: Bernie Mac, Angela Bassett, Michael Rispoli, Brian White, Anthony Dale, Evan Jones, Amaury Nolasco, Dondre Whitfield, Paul Sorvino, Chris Noth
Screened at: Loews 34th St., NYC, 9/18/04
Expect critics and movie fans alike to have a field day with metaphors for Charles Stone III's "Mr. 3000," ranging from "a major league story that stays in the minors," "a foul ball," "strikes out," "take a walk Bernie Mac," "hits a homer," "deserves to be in the Hall of Fame (or Shame)." While Bernie Mac is a fine comedian who is asked here to play a role in a baseball drama, a pedestrian script, a look at major league ball players as a pot pourri of stereotypes, the existence of only a single likable character (who delivers the movie's nicest lines while serving behind a bar) "Mr. 3000" is not only a lame story but one which has its lead performer engage in actions in the last of the ninth that would never have been allowed by a coach.
Bernie Mac inhabits the role of Stan Ross, who has 3,000 hits to his career. He's such an egomaniac and first-class jerk that he plunges into the stands to snatch the historic baseball from a frightened kid and his disgusted papa and betrays the team by quitting right in the middle of the season. For reasons unknown, however, he fails to be elected to baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, a defeat that Stan simply cannot live down years after he quit the game. When some bean counters discover a miscount (think "Open Water"), that Stan really made only 2,997 hits in his career, he's crushed–so badly that he is determined at the age of forty-seven, after a nine-year recess, to re-join the team.
The big plot hole: If Stan is unable to gain election to the Hall of Fame after his alleged 3,000th hit years back, what makes him think he would be considered now? Other plot holes turn up in the last of the ninth when Stan, the last hitter in the lineup, gets his final chance to hit 3,000. What he does boggles the mind. No coach would have recommended the chosen
strategy.
We're giving nothing away, really, when we say that this is the story of a young man's metamorphosis from one who is full of himself, whose team spirit is practically zilch in his struggle to be prized for individual achievement, but who at a later age grows up and is willing to make sacrifices for the good of the group. For the obligatory love interest, there's a lame story of Stan's romantic renewal with Mo (Angela Bassett), a reporter for ESPN who knows she will soon be pushed aside for someone younger and fights her feelings for Stan, whom she considers a womanizer. Bernie Mac is appropriately cast as a morose egomaniac but the story, which portrays everyone except the bartender as a cynic or a jerk, militates against its feel-good conclusion.
Rated PG-13. 102 minutes © Harvey Karten
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Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
