Bernie Mac is a charismatic and talented stand-up comedian and sitcom star. However, I’ve never cared for his movie roles. I mean Bosley in Charlie’s Angels 2, Head Of State, What’s The Worst That Could Happen? “BAH,” as my main man Victor Von Doom would say. In the new comedy, Mr. 3000, Bernie Mac tries to “step up to the plate” so to speak as the leading man and does a decent job of it. But that doesn’t really keep it from being the by-the-numbers, pedestrian Hollywood movie that it is.

Mac plays Stan “The Boss” Ross, an exceptional hitter for the Milwaukee Brewers. After finally achieving the rare feat of batting 3,000 hits, Stan gives the proverbial finger to his teammates and retires prepared to become a legend, a hall of famer, and mooch off his accomplishments for the rest of his life. After his number is retired, and his stats are reviewed for the baseball Hall Of Fame, it’s revealed that three of Stan’s hits are void, making Mr. 3000 more like Mr. 2997. Thus, the high concept leads to Stan getting back into shape so he can earn back his legacy. Stan is a rude ego-maniac and definitely spells team with an “I”, as they say in the movie’s tag line. As these things always go, Stan has to learn to be a team player instead of just playing for himself. You can pretty much figure out everything after that.

And again, Mac does a decent job in the leading role which certainly surprised me, but the overall weakness of the clichéd story does not really do much good. There’s also the lovely Angela Bassett (AN: Still stunning and flawless at the ripe old age of 46) as Maureen, Stan’s ex-girlfriend and the flick’s designated love interest. Bassett is definitely captivating… and there is just something so inherently sexy about seeing her chomp on a t-bone like some poor soul on the Atkins diet. Protein is good.

The supporting cast features the usual suspects for this type of movie. There’s the young, haughty, star player, T-Rex (White); Fukuda (Dale), a Japanese guy who mixes up his swear words in quite an annoying fashion; and the evil-bastard team owner, Schiembri (Noth)—and really, is there any other kind of team owner in a movie about baseball (or any sports-related movie for that matter)? Then there’s Stan’s low-key former teammate and business partner, Boca (Rispoli), and as the Brewers’ coach, Gus Panas, Paul Sorvino obviously got an easy paycheck since he didn’t have to do much more than sit in the dug-out and walk around a bit. None of the supporting players were particularly funny or impressive.

If you need a cheesy, corny little diversion at your local theatre or a quick matinee, I can think of worse things than seeing Mr. 3000. Some good comedy by Mac and Angela Bassett looking absolutely fantastic could be right up your alley. Other than that, you’ve probably seen this movie a million times before—only with different titles.

—Jeffrey “The Vile One” Harris