If Mr. 3000 had to be compared to a baseball play, it certainly wouldn't be a home run, nor would it be a strikeout. It would be more like four balls: it makes it to first base—a modest but adequate endeavor—but there isn't much excitement watching it get there.
We've seen quite a few sports movies where the underdog's comeback has him running the bases to unlikely victory, and this one hits all those same bases. But it's Bernie Mac's charisma that finally brings the film around to home plate. Mac plays Stan, a retired ballplayer, who after scoring his 3,000th hit (and a likely spot in the Hall of Fame), abandoned his team in the middle of a pennant race to focus on the various merchandising possibilities associated with being "Mr. 3000." But nine years later, Stan's self-centered legacy soars off into foul territory when it turns out that, due to a corrected clerical error, he's really Mr. 2,997.
So begins the aged ballplayer's quest to regain his title with three more hits. The story takes us to first base, where the predictable physical conditioning high jinks take place, and then it gets lost on its way to second, where Stan must inevitably learn the error of his ways. Stan succeeds in arriving at that point, but since little happens to motivate this change, we're never quite sure how he gets there. The film really starts to meander between second and third, when an unnecessary love interest comes into play. Angela Bassett portrays Mo, a sports reporter who has, and has had, a love/hate relationship with Stan. Though an undeniably talented actress, Bassett is wasted in a distracting role requiring her to do little more than smile flirtatiously and shake her hips. She's such a distraction, in fact, that Stan forgets he's overcome his evil ways, returns to them, and eventually conquers them once again, which leads to the final touchy-feely life lesson that resides at home.
It takes a ringer like Mac to save a clichéd film like this from falling into an unsalvageable slump. He is one of those comedians who makes you laugh, not because of what he says, but because of his delivery. And since virtually nothing in Mr. 3000 is truly funny, it's good that Mac can flash those pearly whites and knock a few one-liners out of the park.