Anthony's Film Review - Mr. 3000 (2004)

Not enough humor to call it a feel-good comedy, but the story is decent...

This is one of those movies where the trailer seems funnier than the actual movie. So you got a baseball player who is known as Mr. 3000 because that is the number of hits he has achieved throughout his professional baseball career. In addition, he retires from the game right after that 3000th hit. Not a bad idea, except that years later, it is found that three of them were accidentally counted twice, so he's really Mr. 2997. Imagine that. After years in retirement with various Mr. 3000 businesses, like a Mr. 3000-themed bar and Mr. 3000-themed restaurants, this embarrassing piece of news hits the sports headlines.

That's what made the trailer so funny: a clever joke involving an original plot idea. But I'm not reviewing a movie trailer. I'm reviewing the full movie it advertised. I will say that Bernie Mac is not a bad choice for Stan Ross. The beginning of the movie in which he comes to a ballgame during his retirement to speak to the fans is interesting. He's a guy who is really full of himself. He likes the attention of thousands of screaming fans in the seats. He calls himself the Boss. "Can you say 'Stan Ross'?!" "STAN ROSS!" "He's the Boss!" "HE'S THE BOSS!"

Now fast forward to when sports commentary shows on ESPN and Jay Leno all make fun of Mr. 2997. This is a nice scene. Stan is watching TV, and the camera revolves around him. As this happens, we see the various people on TV in the same room with him. He is a man who has fallen from glory and gets nothing but disrespect. Once the jokes are put aside, they're all complaining about the same thing: Stan Ross is egotistical and self-centered. Hence, a big lesson that he must learn from this point on.

So now he has to get into shape to get back into the game, just for three more hits. He also turns his attention towards the team. Correction: lack of a team. Ironically, Stan knows the importance of teamwork, because that was what the game was about back then. Now, being a professional athlete seems to be about getting attention. One player, for example, hopes to be featured in an upcoming sports video game. But while Stan tries to coach the team about teamwork, he still falls into the trap of thinking of himself sometimes.

The story is not bad, but if the movie is meant to be a comedy, it should have more moments where I'm laughing. I only laughed a couple of times, but it wasn't the laugh-out-loud type. Overall, I would rate the movie just a step above the middle of the scale. At least Bernie Mac was an interesting actor to have as the star. I wouldn't know of anyone who would have been a better choice.

Anthony's Rating:

For more information about Mr. 3000, visit the Internet Movie Database.