People always ask me why I can't see movies as just entertainment and why I feel the need to place everyone under examination, like I'm trying to magnify every little aspect. Why can't I just enjoy the movie? They misrepresent me and forget when I review a film, I'm putting down my thoughts and this is my opinion; I try and extend mine past simple, fragmented remarks. I'm using this as the introduction to my review of Charles Stone III's Mr. 3000 because I can see every point at which I'm about to make being refuted with the statement, "it's entertaining, who cares?" This is where the average moviegoer and myself see ourselves at odds.
Mr. 3000 will be found entertaining by baseball fans, fans of sports films, and those looking for light-hearted comedy that can't be burdened to think much. There is nothing wrong with that at all. It concerns Stan Ross, an unbelievably arrogant, self-centered baseball player who gets his three-thousandth hit right at the beginning of the film. He is so arrogant and self-centered that he goes into the crowd and snatches the ball from a kid's hand. In the locker-room after the game, giving a post-game interview, Ross announces that he will quit mid-season, leaving his team hanging. He got three-thousand hits; what more does he have to do? Nine years later, however, an error is discovered after Ross is about to be entered into the Baseball Hall of Fame, leaving him with two-thousand nine hundred and seven hits and not three-thousand. He decides that even at forty-seven, he should return to his old team - the Milwaukee Brewers, who are now struggling in fifth place - and hit the ball three more times to be an official member of the three-thousand club.
Stan Ross is played by Bernie Mac, an actor who oozes likability and wry humor when he needs to. Because of this, seeing him play a cantankerous, unnecessarily arrogant ballplayer is disheartening, and this persona becomes such a drag that by the time the inevitable plot-points ring true and we're left with a corny ending, we still couldn't bother to side with this man - at least I couldn't. When we focus on a character who has been disrespectful and disgustingly narcissistic for more than half of the film and at the end the film makes us try and side with him, as he slowly begins to realize the pain and lonesomeness that comes with being so brazenly self-indulgent, I can't be bothered to have sympathy for the man. Narcissism is single-handedly the trait in people I despise the most, and even when Ross is clearly being sincere near the end, I saw nothing but smarmy behavior and false kindness in him.
It's no secret that baseball players can be the most self-indulgent athletes around. I frequently attend minor league games and see stuck-up attitudes abound - and that's a single-A division. There is indisputable truth to the Stan Ross character in baseball circles, but do people really want to watch a film about a sickeningly arrogant ballplayer? Considering Mr. 3000's lukewarm box office receipts, I'm guessing not entirely.
Besides its irredeemable character and the predictable sentimentality that endures, Mr. 3000 is a perfectly watchable film. For one, it features some of the slickest editing I've seen in a baseball picture, especially during the scenes on the diamond, which become briskly paced and somewhat tense when Ross is up to bat. Not to mention, Paul Sorvino gets a bold moment to shine, and the scene when the players are talking about the "sounds" of baseball from years past is wholesome and kindly nostalgic. Now if only the film's title character could possess traits closer to the latter than the ones he holds onto now, which are nearly stomach-turning.
Starring: Bernie Mac, Angela Bassett, and Paul Sorvino. Directed by: Charles Stone III.
Mr. 3000 will be found entertaining by baseball fans, fans of sports films, and those looking for light-hearted comedy that can't be burdened to think much. There is nothing wrong with that at all. It concerns Stan Ross, an unbelievably arrogant, self-centered baseball player who gets his three-thousandth hit right at the beginning of the film. He is so arrogant and self-centered that he goes into the crowd and snatches the ball from a kid's hand. In the locker-room after the game, giving a post-game interview, Ross announces that he will quit mid-season, leaving his team hanging. He got three-thousand hits; what more does he have to do? Nine years later, however, an error is discovered after Ross is about to be entered into the Baseball Hall of Fame, leaving him with two-thousand nine hundred and seven hits and not three-thousand. He decides that even at forty-seven, he should return to his old team - the Milwaukee Brewers, who are now struggling in fifth place - and hit the ball three more times to be an official member of the three-thousand club.
Stan Ross is played by Bernie Mac, an actor who oozes likability and wry humor when he needs to. Because of this, seeing him play a cantankerous, unnecessarily arrogant ballplayer is disheartening, and this persona becomes such a drag that by the time the inevitable plot-points ring true and we're left with a corny ending, we still couldn't bother to side with this man - at least I couldn't. When we focus on a character who has been disrespectful and disgustingly narcissistic for more than half of the film and at the end the film makes us try and side with him, as he slowly begins to realize the pain and lonesomeness that comes with being so brazenly self-indulgent, I can't be bothered to have sympathy for the man. Narcissism is single-handedly the trait in people I despise the most, and even when Ross is clearly being sincere near the end, I saw nothing but smarmy behavior and false kindness in him.
It's no secret that baseball players can be the most self-indulgent athletes around. I frequently attend minor league games and see stuck-up attitudes abound - and that's a single-A division. There is indisputable truth to the Stan Ross character in baseball circles, but do people really want to watch a film about a sickeningly arrogant ballplayer? Considering Mr. 3000's lukewarm box office receipts, I'm guessing not entirely.
Besides its irredeemable character and the predictable sentimentality that endures, Mr. 3000 is a perfectly watchable film. For one, it features some of the slickest editing I've seen in a baseball picture, especially during the scenes on the diamond, which become briskly paced and somewhat tense when Ross is up to bat. Not to mention, Paul Sorvino gets a bold moment to shine, and the scene when the players are talking about the "sounds" of baseball from years past is wholesome and kindly nostalgic. Now if only the film's title character could possess traits closer to the latter than the ones he holds onto now, which are nearly stomach-turning.
Starring: Bernie Mac, Angela Bassett, and Paul Sorvino. Directed by: Charles Stone III.