Mac attacks role in 'Mr. 3000'

By Eleanor O'Sullivan
Asbury Park (N.J.) Press

MR. 3000 (Rated PG-13) Three Stars (Good) Bernie Mac is an aging baseball player in this film that proves he's the heir apparent to the late great Jackie Gleason. Gleason was the kind of consummate performer who could just stroll onto a set or into a frame and steal it, but he was a generous player, too, who let his co-stars look good. Mac does likewise. Angela Bassett and Michael Rispoli also star for director Charles Stone III.

Gleason was the kind of consummate performer who could just stroll onto a set or into a frame and steal it. But he was a generous player, too, who let his co-stars look good. Mac does likewise.

In the tepid but harmless "Mr. 3000," Mac can't help but be the center of any storm or good time. He portrays a 47-year-old first baseman named Stan who has retired from the Milwaukee Brewers with 3,000 hits and no friends, except the guy who tends bar at one of his restaurants.

Stan is a prickly but funny man who turns on the charm when it suits him, which is rarely. When the Hall of Fame committee discovers that he is three hits short of 3,000, Stan returns to the game to get those last three hits. He figures it will take him two weeks, maybe; a month tops.

He's wrong. Many weeks go by, which lead him into September, which finds the Brewers fighting to get out of the cellar in their division, and Stan, improbably, cheerleading the team and its best hitter to go for third place.

That fragile premise would disintegrate with the first wave of wind were it not for Mac's electricity. He doesn't do heavy-duty emoting here, but then he doesn't have to. He's edgy and humorous and charismatic, even if the movie is vulgar and dull when Mac's not the focal point.

What's noteworthy is that the screenwriters and Mac don't shy from depicting Stan as a cranky, selfish, one-note person, which reminds us of Ron Shelton's brilliant "Cobb," an underrated movie about the great but horrible Ty Cobb.

Angela Bassett shows up midway as a reporter named Mo. She's meant to soften and sexualize Stan, and it works, except that Mo disappears for large chunks of screen time, and the love story loses its momentum.

But there is the devilishly talented Mac to savor. Nobody can squeeze as much out of the word "Baby" (aimed at men and women) as Mac. And like Gleason, Mac is a shameless clothes horse. Dear in memory is Stan's sunburst yellow double-breasted suit with tie and shoes shaded a tick darker for contrast. How sweet it is.

Rated PG-13 for sex, profanity.