2008 Woodie Awards
Mr. 3,000 is Mr. Mediocre
Jonathan Stone
Issue date: 9/29/04 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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Selfish, egotistical baseball superstar Stan Ross (Bernie Mac) collected his 3,000th hit and retired mid-season, leaving his teammates high and dry. Nine years later, it is discovered that the statistics for one game were counted twice, and Mr. 3,000 is really Mr. 2,997. Ross decides he is going to make a comeback as an out of shape 47-year-old September call-up for his former ball club, the Milwaukee Brewers. With help from Mo (Ross's former lover and ESPN reporter played by Angela Bassett) and his new cocky teammates, Ross learns how to be a team player. Without revealing the ending to the movie, Ross discovers his love of the game by trying to help the team win, rather than playing to get his record-breaking hit.
The movie is one dimensional, with every scene focusing on Ross. A predictable pattern develops in which Ross goes from egotistical to a team player, and then back to an egotistical superstar before ending the movie as a media-friendly team player. The storyline of the movie gets boring. Every scene has to do with one of the following: Ross embarrassing himself at the plate, interacting with his teammates, or struggling to establish and maintain a sexual relationship with Mo. The opening, showing Ross getting his 3,000th hit in 1995, and the ending, Ross learning to become a team player and retiring once again when the season is over, are the only two parts of the movie that are somewhat interesting.
The acting left something to be desired. Bernie Mac was able to make everyone hate him at the beginning of the movie, and love him by the end of the movie, while unfortunately playing the same character that can be seen in The Bernie Mac Show. Michael Rispoli, who plays Ross's best friend Boca, was mostly used to give the audience a break from Ross's overwhelming character. Without Mo's character, this movie would have been fifteen minutes long. Since she was once close with Ross and that she is an ESPN reporter, her influence is one of the main reasons Ross's character changes. Showing up about ten minutes into the script, she gave Ross a verbal beating that intrigued the audience for the three minutes it lasted. Everything after that scene and before Ross's final game of the season was filled with repetitive and mostly boring scenes.
The movie is one dimensional, with every scene focusing on Ross. A predictable pattern develops in which Ross goes from egotistical to a team player, and then back to an egotistical superstar before ending the movie as a media-friendly team player. The storyline of the movie gets boring. Every scene has to do with one of the following: Ross embarrassing himself at the plate, interacting with his teammates, or struggling to establish and maintain a sexual relationship with Mo. The opening, showing Ross getting his 3,000th hit in 1995, and the ending, Ross learning to become a team player and retiring once again when the season is over, are the only two parts of the movie that are somewhat interesting.
The acting left something to be desired. Bernie Mac was able to make everyone hate him at the beginning of the movie, and love him by the end of the movie, while unfortunately playing the same character that can be seen in The Bernie Mac Show. Michael Rispoli, who plays Ross's best friend Boca, was mostly used to give the audience a break from Ross's overwhelming character. Without Mo's character, this movie would have been fifteen minutes long. Since she was once close with Ross and that she is an ESPN reporter, her influence is one of the main reasons Ross's character changes. Showing up about ten minutes into the script, she gave Ross a verbal beating that intrigued the audience for the three minutes it lasted. Everything after that scene and before Ross's final game of the season was filled with repetitive and mostly boring scenes.