A new season, new team, new roster, new coach...same old story?
Yes back in 1989 we were gifted with the surprise sports hit 'Major League' which saw the mix of rugged veteran stars and upcoming newbie stars come together to produce one of the best baseball movies to date. The fact that it was a decent comedy as well was just the icing on the cake. Five years later we were given a sequel that was basically a poor remake of the first with the odd change in casting. It was a new season, but the same shit happened all over again. This now leads us to this belated sequel, nearly ten years after the original classic. Was it worth the wait?
So this time, we meet up with Minor League pitcher Gus Cantrell (Scott Bakula) who has recently been caught cheating in a game. Roger Dorn (Corbin Bernsen), now the owner of the Minnesota Twins, hires him to manage their Minor League affiliate team The Buzz. Naturally, this team are not doing too well and the roster is made up of various eccentrics and weak players. Can Cantrell turn this team around? So yeah, it's the same spiel, the only difference here is the plot deviates somewhat as Cantrell clashes with the Twins manager and both teams end up playing each other in a challenge (which turns out to be the movie's big finale game).
I guess one of the funny things about this movie is the fact they couldn't tear themselves away from the original two movies entirely. They had to try and get previous actors and their characters back despite the fact it doesn't really add up. Harry Doyle (Bob Uecker) is back commentating for The Buzz games. Why? Why would this one-time big league sports commentator now be working with a Minor League team? And coincidentally, The Buzz. Catcher Rube Baker (Eric Bruskotter) is now coincidentally playing for The Buzz. Pedro Cerrano (Dennis Haysbert) and Tanaka (Takaaki Ishibashi) both come back to coincidentally play for The Buzz. Heck, even Duke Temple (Steve Yeager) is back, now a coach with the Twins! I get that they wanted some continuity with the previous movies but this just seems unrealistic as most of these players would be retired by now or possibly still with Major League teams. But also, this is supposed to be more of a standalone movie, so don't rely on characters from the previous movies.
As for the plot, I appreciate that they did at least try something somewhat different this time. Yeah most of the movie revolves around The Buzz trying to get better in the league, but the deviation to challenging the Twins after both managers get into a childish fight is a reasonable move. The Twins manager is played by Ted McGinley who delivers a decent, devious man-child-like character in the Twins manager. This works well against Bakula's sensible nice-guy persona. The thing is, it's the same type of persona Bakula always uses, he's a bit of a one-note actor. Think Sam Beckett as a baseball manager.
As for the rest of the team, you have a player who used to be a ballerina. A pitcher who pitches really slowly. A player who is old and overweight. Rube Baker still can't throw to basemen, Cerrano and Tanaka don't seem to have improved with Major League experience, but they do have one decent hitter in Billy 'Downtown' Anderson (Walton Goggins), who keeps the team afloat. So expect the usual type of baseball hijinks, but maybe not as much as you might expect.
Overall this isn't too bad really. It's actually much better than the second sequel 'Major League II' because that merely went over the same ground, a soft reboot almost, even redoing the same sight gags and hijinks. A complete waste of time, but this third entry actually does try to be different and does well introducing some new characters. Obviously, this was always gonna be along the same lines as the previous movies, it's a baseball story, so what do you expect. But overall this movie is a nice, easy-going sports comedy that should please sports and comedy fans alike.
6/10
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