| Overall Grade: |
B |
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| Story: |
B- |
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| Acting: |
B |
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| Direction: |
B+ |
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| Visuals: |
B |
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Mr. 3000 isn't a great movie but it's affectionate
by Yahoo! Movies User (movies profile)
Sep 9, 2006
43
of
52 people found this review helpful
Bernie Mac touches all the bases in this diamond tale
In Mr. 3000, a fantasy-camp inspirational about a first baseman who gets a second chance at being a team player, Bernie Mac, that prickly cactus of grumpitude, blooms.
He plays Stan Ross, a big-mouth big hitter who retired about a decade ago at the top of his game. So what if Stan's team was in the middle of a pennant race? He had racked up his 3,000 hits, figured he was a Hall of Fame shoo-in, and didn't care a fly ball about the Brewers' fate. But just before Stan goes to Cooperstown, tabulators discover he is three hits shy of landmark status.
Since Stan's identity - not to mention his business empire and endorsements - is wrapped up in being that 3,000 dude, he asks Brewers management to let him rejoin the team. Three hits. Heck, he can make that in one game, right?
Now 47, Stan has a waistline that's caught up to his age and a karma that's caught up with his me-first dogma. For his new teammates, Stan is older than old-school, he's Paleolithic. And for Stan, his teammates are shockingly self-involved - just like he was back in the day. Complicating his "comeback," Stan has become a national story, what with foxy ESPN reporter Maureen Simmons (Angela Bassett), an ex-girlfriend, dogging his every at-bat and dodging his every attempt to get on base.
Charles Stone III, who made the sleeper hit Drumline, doesn't so much direct Mr. 3000 as get out of the way and let Mac and Bassett do that movie voodoo that they do so well. One wishes that the screenplay (by Eric Champnella, Keith Mitchell and Howard Michael Gould) were as accomplished as the actors, but one can't have everything.
Mr. 3000 is not a great movie, but it's affectionate. It reveals the cuddly side of Mac. It reimagines midlife romance with the warmth of a Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn movie, if without its wit. And it holds out the fantasy that with a little Pilates and some introspection, a selfish guy can become a selfless one. |
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