Product Details

• Actors: Bernie Mac, Angela Bassett, Michael Rispoli, Brian White, Ian Anthony Dale
• Directors: Charles Stone III
• Writers: Eric Champnella, Howard Michael Gould, Keith Mitchell
• Producers: Derek Evans, Frank Marshall, Gary Barber, Jonathan Glickman
• Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: English
• Subtitles: Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Buena Vista Home Entertainment / Touchstone
• DVD Release Date: February 1, 2005
• Run Time: 104 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0006GAI5U
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #110,550 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Mr. 3000 (Full Screen Edition)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Bernie Mac is perfectly cast in Mr. 3000, a feel-good baseball comedy that capitalizes on Mac's established comedy persona. He plays Stan Ross, veteran first-baseman for the struggling Milwaukee Brewers, who quit the team during a pennant race and, nine years later, discovers that he's actually three hits short of his 3,000 career-hit claim to fame. When he attempts a comeback to correct his record, his selfish past returns to haunt him, along with a former flame (Angela Bassett, who deserves better roles) who's covering Stan's return to baseball for ESPN. It's strictly formula, but the comedy is consistently entertaining, and director Charles Stone III proves that his 2002 sleeper hit Drumline was no fluke, injecting observant details into a very predictable plotline. Easily recommended, Mr. 3000 makes a good double-header with 1989's hit baseball comedy Major League. --Jeff Shannon

Product Description

This hilarious, crowd-pleasing hit scores big laughs with funnyman Bernie Mac (BAD SANTA, OCEAN'S 11) and Academy Award(R) nominee Angela Bassett (Best Actress, WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT, 1993). The day he got his 3,000th big league hit, Stan Ross (Mac) walked away from the game believing he'd punched his ticket to the Hall of Fame. But 10 years later, Stan becomes baseball's biggest error when it's discovered that three of his hits don't count! Now this over-the-hill former star with an oversized ego decides to make the major league's most outrageous comeback in order to regain his claim to fame! Also featuring Chris Noth (TV's SEX AND THE CITY, CAST AWAY) and Paul Sorvino (THE COOLER, GOODFELLAS) ... catch the laugh-packed comedy that's been a home run with audiences everywhere!

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Light Comedy with a Little Bite from Bernie Mac., February 5, 2005

By 

mirasreviews (McLean, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Mr. 3000 (Full Screen Edition) (DVD)

"Mr. 3000" is a sports comedy with a virtuous message that will satisfy light entertainment cravings. Stan Ross (Bernie Mac) is a former Milwaukee Brewer who retired from baseball as soon as he had achieved a career 3000 hits, guaranteeing him a place in the record books and a slew of endorsement deals. His teammates hated him. The press attacked him. But egotistical, self-obsessed Stan didn't care as long as he had 3000 hits and a shot at the Baseball Hall of Fame. 9 years later, when he is finally being seriously considered for entry into the Hall of Fame, a computational error that caused 3 of his hits to be counted twice is discovered. Stan only made 2997 hits! So he decides to return to baseball, at the age of 47, to get those 3 hits back. He finds that a lot of things have changed since he left the game. But his former love, sports journalist Maureen Simmons (Angela Bassett), is covering his story again. And the team's young, cocky, selfish, star player (Brian White) reminds Stan of himself.

Bernie Mac injects a little bite into this otherwise feel-good comedy. Stan Ross is obnoxious, but Mac makes him a basically lovable jerk. If you don't like Bernie Mac's persona, however, you won't like this. Stan is overbearing, but "Mr. 3000" is ultimately a sweet film about self-sacrifice with the occasional off-color comment to remind us that we are talking about professional athletes here. It's a fun movie if you're looking for something light.

The DVD: Bonus features include 3 featurettes, 3 extended sequences, 3 deleted scenes with optional director's commentary, outtakes (3 minutes), and an audio commentary by director Charles Stone III. "The Making of Mr. 3000" (15 minutes) features interviews with producer Maggie White, director Charles Stone, the principle cast, and the film's baseball advisor and baseball coordinator. Stone discusses his intentions and the sports shows featured in the film. The cast talk about their experiences with baseball and with training for the film. "Spring Training: The Extras' Journey" (10 minutes) follows the process of finding the extras to play baseball roles, some of whom were talented players drafted by pro teams in the past. Includes interviews with some of the extras. "Everybody Loves Stan" (3 1/2 minutes) is a sort of mock media production about the Stan Ross character using footage from the movie and a few soundbites from former pro baseball players. Charles Stone does a nice director's commentary that addresses technical, character, narrative, and thematic aspects of the film, clearly and coherently. Subtitles for the film are available in French and Spanish. Captioning is in English. And dubbing is available in French.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bernie Mac Nails It, April 19, 2005

By 

James Duckett (St. George, Utah) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mr. 3000 (Widescreen Edition) (DVD)

I can imagine very few people who could have played Stan Ross as well as Bernie Mac did. It was a delicate balance, playing a jerk and still coming across as somewhat likeable. Likeable enough to forgive, anyways.

Bernie Mac plays Stan Ross, a professional ball player who quits at hit 3,000. His entire life centers around the fact that he hit 3,000 hits.

Stan Ross' main goal is to make it into the Hall of Fame but under review it turns out that 3 of his hits were counted twice and it kicked him out of the running for the Hall of Fame (mostly because nobody even likes him). So, Stan decides to come back to claim his 3 hits, win back his legacy, and continue his campaign into the Hall of Fame.

Even though he has been gone for nine years, the game has changed. The balls are faster, the athletes younger, and the training is more high tech. And to top it off, Stan is older as well.

In other words, Stan needs to change. Not just physically, but his attitude as well. The ending, though predictable, was well worth getting to and fairly satisfying. Since this is a character movie, it all came down to a choice. And, unlike other movies like this, Stan doesn't hesitate on his choice, he just makes it. I liked that, I liked that a lot. It could have been blown out and that would have ruined the ending for me.

The love interest that Stan chases was actually the only boring part of the movie. After watching a few of them I just started fast forwarding those scenes. Believe me, I didn't miss a thing. I know it needs to be in there to attract certain demographics, but I found it boring and pointless. So if you are a guy, trust me, just fast forward these parts.

Entertaining and funny... perfect for a good weekend video.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful story about a selfish man who grows up a little, June 11, 2005

By 

Kenji Fujishima (East Brunswick, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mr. 3000 (Widescreen Edition) (DVD)

Call me a sap if you like, but I think MR. 3000 tells a beautiful story. Predictable? Maybe. Cliched? Possibly. And yet, it's so well-written and directed, so vividly acted, and so attentive to characters rather than to attending to carrying out a sports-movie formula, that I never FELT that the movie was musty or cliched. The whole thing feels fresh. It's also funny and, in the end, rather touching.

MR. 3000 is basically about a selfish man's comeuppance. After getting his 3000th hit, Stan Ross (Bernie Mac) decides to rest on his laurels and retire from baseball---even as his team, the Milwaukee Brewers, is in the midst of playoff contention. Nine years later, Ross finds out that he didn't have his 3000 hits after all; a counting error caused a few hits to count more than once, and he really had only 2997 when he retired. His pride having taken a beating, he decides to return to baseball to get his final three hits...and, in the process, grows up a little from the selfish man he was in the past.

It's a plot that doesn't sound all that fresh on paper. But there's no anticipating the depth that the screenwriters, director Charles Stone III, and Bernie Mac bring to the character of Stan Ross. Ross could have been made into a caricature of arrogance, a painfully funny stick figure of a character off of whom easy satirical points could have been scored. But the Ross of MR. 3000 is disarmingly likable in spite of his (hilarious) flaws, because you realize that, despite his me-first nature, he really does love the game of baseball, and understands how it works. It is with this understanding that he becomes a mentor of sorts to the new Brewers team he joins: a group of self-satisfied, self-absorbed players who seem to care little about the game itself (and their indifference is reflected in their cellar-dwelling status in their league). In one scene, Ross sees a faintly disturbing reflection of his old self in T-Rex (Brian J. White), and, as T-Rex is about to get into his car, Ross stops him and advises him on the virtues of becoming a forceful team leader, one who can encourage the highest level of play from the team. Ross has clearly seen enough to know what makes for a winning team, and that is what makes Ross an admirable character regardless of his inflated ego.

But, of course, at that point of the movie, you might be thinking that he's being a little hypocritical, telling a teammate to act like a team leader when he himself hasn't shown a great deal of similar unselfish attributes. It is precisely that kind of character complexity and nuance that makes MR. 3000 stand out from the usual standard sports-movie ilk, with its comic caricatures and by-the-numbers plots. The film doesn't take a mechanical approach to Stan Ross' change of heart. When Hit No. 3000 looms on the horizon for him, Ross decides to call for an extra team practice...only to blow it off himself in order to appear on Jay Leno. He still can't resist the lure of his own ego, even as he selflessly inspires his team to try to at least go down fighting.

Stan Ross is a character that has been sensitively written by its three credited writers (Eric Champnella, Keith Mitchell, and Howard Michael Gould), but of course it's up to the actor to bring a character to life, and Bernie Mac comes through with a performance that is better than anyone had a right to expect from a man whose first leading role this is. Whereas another actor might have gone for psychological depth in portraying Ross' selfishness, Mac makes it light and funny. But Mac does achieve some real moments of emotional gravitas, moments in which one can sense, looking at Mac's expressive face at certain moments, that Ross' anxiety and fear about losing his hard-fought legacy loom in his head. It's a charming, beautifully-shaded, marvelous performance, and for all the hype Jamie Foxx garnered for his Ray Charles interpretation in RAY, Bernie Mac's may actually be superior in its emotional impact. Seriously.

Director Charles Stone III keeps everything light, fresh and above all honest; this movie, which could easily have given into Hollywood-style bathos, never becomes overly sentimental with its change-of-heart story. Instead, it is emotionally convincing every step of the way. Stone---as well as the script, of course---also shows an awareness of the realities of the game of baseball today: how pro athletes can sometimes be less than serious about the game they're playing, how baseball owners can sometimes be concerned only about drawing in crowds, how sensitive media members can be when a player treats them less than respectfully, etc. You can see how a focused player like Stan Ross could be considered a refreshing and even uplifting presence in the midst of such cynicism. Thankfully, the movie itself never becomes merely cynical: even as it takes some sharp jabs at baseball as it is run today, there is always that faint recognition of truth that makes for an enriching movie.

By the end of MR. 3000, the movie inevitably comes down to a last-ditch effort in the bottom of the 9th inning in a tie game. And eventually Stan Ross gets redemption---but not the kind of redemption he necessarily expects. It's perhaps not as surprising an ending as the filmmakers clearly want it to be; still, it is a beautifully fitting ending, one that puts a capper on a surprisingly better-than-average sports movie. Call me sentimental, but I found MR. 3000 touching. Recommended.