Mr. 3000

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In Mr. 3000, Bernie Mac plays Stan Ross, a retired Milwaukee Brewer who finds out 9 years after getting his 3,000 hit in Major League Baseball that 3 of those hits don’t count. Bold, brassy, and stone-cold in love with himself, Stan goes on a mission to reclaim those 3 missing hits en route to his rightful place in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Concept sounds good on paper. When it comes to execution, however . . . Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz . . .

Mac’s performance comes across as not even a performance. Stan Ross is basically just another caricature of himself. You could easily save the matinee money and Tivo an episode of his TV show if you’re that desperate to see Bernie Mac do his thing. He’s still fussing and crying about getting the short end of life’s stick. You can simply substitute baseball players and sports reporters for the kids on his show.

Even the chemistry between Ross and his Milwaukee Brewers teammates was boring. The best player on the team is a hotshot home-run slugger who walks with the same swagger and arrogance that Ross did in his earlier playing days. The filmmakers were probably aiming to present a mentor-student type relationship between these two as well as the other players (including 2 guys who spend the whole film playing dumb trivia contests and a Japanese pitcher who can’t quite get his curse words in the proper syntax and context). But it comes across as just another sports movie cliché. If you’ve seen it once, you’ve seen it all before.

It was really good to see Angela Bassett in a mainstream flick again playing Mac’s love interest, an ESPN reporter and ex-flame of Stan Ross. Most of her roles have a certain intensity to them. To see her playing in a lighter film was refreshing. Hopefully she'll do more roles like this.

The ending was a slight surprise -- but just as contrived as the rest of the flick. Overall, the film is just another C+ exercise in mediocrity. Not a good film. Not a bad film. But a boring film in the end. It’s just sitting there, spooling reel after reel through the multiplex projector as it waits for time to pass on by . . . and so will the audience.

Links
—Review
—Trailers, Photos
—About this Film
—Spiritual Connections