Mr. 3000

Review By: Zak Santucci
ZakSantucci@TheCinemaSource.com

Mr. 3000 is about an arrogant, egotistical sports star who’s hated by the media and his fellow players. The only reason the fans like him, is because he is one of the best hitters in history. After he joins the 3000 hit club, he selfishly leaves his team midseason even though they need his presence to fight for the pennant. 9 years later, Stan Ross (played by Bernie Mac) takes advantage of the fact that he’s Mr. 3000 as much as he can. With a shopping center containing the number 3000 in every store name, he is ready for the vote into the Hall of Fame. But the year that he’s supposed to get the coveted prize they realize that because of a clerical error he only has 2997 hits. Ross unfortunately doesn’t get into the Hall of Fame as a result. Since it is made clear that has been his only goal since he was a player he decides to go back to Milwaukee Brewers so he can make his record. Chris Noth plays the stereotypical greedy owner who lets him play because it will sell more tickets. After he realizes he isn’t the hitter he used to be, Mac slowly realizes he’s alone in the world and he must become a less selfish person and teach his baseball team the same as he fights for three hits in the last month of the season.

If you want to see Mr. 3000 because you expect a pointless vehicle for Bernie Mac to incorporate his gut-busting stand-up performance into movie form (despite the unfunny previews), then this isn’t the movie to find it. As funny as I think Bernie Mac is, he was almost as toned down for this performance as Richard Pryor and George Carlin have been virtually their whole acting careers. Yes, the outspoken, cocky character of Stan Ross is a perfect mold for Mac to do his magic, but he isn’t taken where he needs to be taken. Mr. 3000 just plain isn’t funny enough to be a goofy sports movie like Necessary Roughness or Major League III: Back to the Minors (sorry, neither of those are good, I’ve just always wanted to reference two Scott Bakula movies in one sentence). Also it isn’t inspiring enough to be a great sports movie like The Natural. It falls more under the realm of a movie like Slapshot where it is a blend of the two genres which sports movies often fall under. However, Mr. 3000 fails to do so sufficiently enough (Slapshot did though, that movie’s awesome). Bernie Mac does show a bit of acting prowess that anyone can be proud of, but it’s not enough to make the experience anything special. It just seems a bit early in Bernie Mac’s acting career to turn him into a serious actor as ...