Friday, April 06, 2007

Now Available on VHS - Major League 3

Last month, I was confined to bed for an entire day. When suddenly, like a beacon of hope emanating from HBO27, came the perfect movie for a 102Degree temperature - MAJOR LEAGUE 3!

According to boxofficemojo.com, ML3's gross of $3.5 Million placed it at 49th on the most popular sports comedies of all time. So I guess I wasn't the only who missed it. But I wasn't about to let opportunity pass me by again.

De La Soul once sang "Three is the Magic Number." When it comes to movie franchises, however, the Violent Femme's "three for my heartache" tends to be more apropos. The Karate Kid, Godfather, Leprechaun, Hellraiser, Batman, and Meatballs all crashed and burned the third time out of the gate. Would ML3 fall into the same trap? The film starts out promising enough - Corbin Bernsen's really rich Twins owner hires Scott Bakula to manage the hapless minor league Buzz. Bakula runs into a new mix of old archetypes: the nerdy pitcher, the hothead power hitter (who's as built as Nicole Richie), the effeminate dude. Bakula is thus forced to bring in veteran President Palmer Cerrano who (thanks to the 90s) has gotten over his voodoo leanings. He also finds wacky Japanese Taka from ML2, a role which only showed me that I never actually saw ML2 either. And what would a Major League be without A-List stalkee Bob Uecker bringing his Jackie Mason leanings to the booth.

Shockingly, the team bonds and starts winning games. Trouble soon rears its head, however, in the form of EVIL Minnesota Twins manager Ted McGinley. That's right... THE TED MCGINELY... an actor so talented, he has his own section of Jump the Shark! Seems that the Twins don't like to be upstaged by their minor league counterparts. And havoc ensues. Actually, havoc doesn't really ensue. In fact, there's not really even an attempt at jokes, except for lots of balls hitting heads. The acting's passable: McGinley works really, really hard for his rent money and Bakula brings his Necessary Roughness skills to a one-note role. Overall, I didn't really laugh. I didn't really learn. But ML3 kept me sane during my fever chills, while Arte Lange's Beer League (#52 all time) only made them worse.

2 comments:

Eric Karros said...

Full title of the movie is "Major League: Back to the Minors". Make you think of someone?

Delino DeShields, Sr said...

Catcher Mike DeFelice ? :-)
ML3 sounds much better than MLBTTM