The talented and funny Bernie Mac is the slugger who carries this lineup of a mediocre script and lackluster cast in Mr. 3000.
By STEVE PERSALL
Published September 16, 2004
[Photo: Touchstone Pictures]
Stan Ross (Bernie Mac), right, tries to make a comeback to get the three hits he needs to reach the 3,000 milestone. Chris Noth is Schembri, the team’s general manager.
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Bernie Mac plays a baseball player in Mr. 3000, but he's really more of a weight lifter. There's no other way to explain how he single-handedly raises a terribly undercooked screenplay to something approaching comedy.
Three writers and director Charles Stone III (Drumline) work hard to keep Mr. 3000 from becoming just another baseball movie, and that isn't always a good idea. The characters are tamer than in Bull Durham, the game isn't played as magically as in The Natural and you can forget any Field of Dreams sentimentality for the hero or the sport.
If you love baseball, you'll fill in the gaps. If you love Mac, there won't be any.
Mac plays Stan Ross, introduced in a Reebok commercial as a self-centered bully with a bat. We're there to see him reach the 3,000-hit plateau that he's certain will lead to the Hall of Fame. But he hasn't considered that sports writers make those selections, and he hasn't been kind to them or his teammates. Stan retires immediately after the hit, deserting his Milwaukee Brewers in a pennant race.
Nine years later, Stan still hasn't been voted into the Hall of Fame. The only testament to his accomplishment is having his nickname, Mr. 3000, plastered on a cheesy shopping plaza. Just before another Hall of Fame vote, a check of his statistics uncovers a scoring error that invalidates three hits. Nobody with Stan's bad attitude and named Mr. 2997 will make the hall.
So he attempts a comeback with the Brewers, whose manager (Paul Sorvino) still holds a grudge. Younger players, including a hotshot slugger named T-Rex (Brian J. White), resent an old man in the clubhouse, especially one pegging them as Little Leaguers. Three hits and acceptance will be tougher for Stan to achieve.
Mac is primed for anything Stan needs to be: a blustery prima donna, a petulant has-been, a locker-room father figure, even a teddy bear to ESPN reporter Mo Simmons (St. Petersburg native Angela Bassett). The screenplay just isn't primed for Bernie Mac. The man scared me into laughing when I first saw him in The Original Kings of Comedy, then his sitcom taught me there's a sweetness beneath that comical anger, as if Mac is the anti-Cosby. Mr. 3000 occasionally shows what Mac can do as a new breed of romantic comedy star, just not as completely or consistently as I hope future projects will.
Except for his scenes with Bassett, in a rare role when she looks like she's enjoying herself, Mac doesn't have anyone who can stand toe-to-toe with his energy. Michael Rispoli is the dullest baseball movie sidekick ever, and Chris Noth as the Brewers' general manager is nothing special. Sorvino remains noticeably mute for so long that we expect a grand explosion and get a pointless rhubarb with an umpire. That the Brewers' mascot, a guy in a sausage costume, gets the second-most laughs in the movie is a telling point.
Stone recovers with a brisk conclusion that caught me by surprise. It's the only time in Mr. 3000 when his defiance of past baseball movies pays off, and it briefly releases yet another facet of Mac's acting capabilities before a comfortably sweet, then saucy finale. It's the cinematic equivalent of a walk-off home run for an ugly win.
Mr. 3000
Grade: B-
Director: Charles Stone III
Cast: Bernie Mac, Angela Bassett, Michael Rispoli, Brian J. White, Chris Noth, Paul Sorvino
Screenplay: Eric Champnella, Keith Mitchell, Howard Michael Gould
