Robbie Thomas
I watched Major League III, it sucks!
I am a big fan of Baseball flicks, especially from the 90s. And I’m also a big fan of minor league baseball to the Toldeo Mud Hens to Macomb County’s own USPBL. So, a movie about the minor leagues would be ideal for me, but this movie fucking stinks! For one thing, I don’t have any problems with Scott Bakula or Walton Goggins (he would later play Shane on The Shield, good show). This movie also brings back Pedro Cerrano and also Taka. Bakula’s character has a lovely cougar girlfriend played by Jensen Daggett (Friday the 13th part 8, Jason takes Manhattan). Daggett would call it quits with acting shortly after this movie and went on to business. She also was in one of my favorite b-flicks, Asteroid in 1997.
With the Major League series, it brought back Roger Dorn (Corbin Bernsen) and I seriously hate that character. I hate that character more than Felix in the Netflix Show In The Dark. I suppose both Bernsen and that actor who plays Felix do a good job. This movie was made when I was in High School and I caught bits and pieces of this movie from then. Until I’ve watched it on this day nearly 25 years later. Major League III has some of those cringe parts that it’s predecessor had. But I do like Major League II (despite some of the cringe moments that one has), I think what makes II good is all the 90s nostalgia that’s in it. I was also released on the same year as The Mighty Ducks II, another great sports flick from the 90s.
However, this movie brought in some seriously cringe moments. Not only Roger Dorn brought the cringe, but also the Leonard Huff character brought in more cringe moments as well. To go back to the story line, the movie follows the Buzz, a AAA affiliate of the Minnesota Twins. Mr. Huff happens to be the manager of the Twins and he does a poor job at managing, as much as being a phony tough guy. Despite the Buzz being a AAA team, the ballparks they play in don’t look very triple-A like to me. In fact, the ballparks look more single A-ball or even more like the baseball fields you’d find in a nearby park. Or maybe Triple-A ballparks weren’t up to the standard they were then in the late 90s.
I went to this webpage about a year-by-year attendance of the Las Vegas Aviators. It said in 1998, they had an average of 4,000 people per game. But in the movie, there are games where it looked like barely anybody showed up. And the stadiums surely didn’t look Triple-A to me. One can guess the folks making this movie couldn’t get the support they were looking for. Also with my research, triple-A baseball attendance has climbed to an average of 7-9 thousand a game. My game at Toledo had 4,500. But in their defense, it was a Thursday game. I’m trying my best to not piss and moan about the appearance of the ballparks in this movie, it just bothered me for some reason and also got me curious about Triple-A ball attendance back in the late 90s.
In the end of it all, this movie sucked. I didn’t enjoy the bad acting in this flick and some of the over-the-top hateable characters in this flick. One notable mention is the Lance Pere (played by Kenny Johnson, I liked him in The Shield). Too many cringe moments, more cringe than Club Piscopo! I thought about throwing away this DVD (bought for a few bucks) but I think it might be some value someday. Probably not… It’s a bummer because I wanted to like this movie, but the acting is bad. And I suppose I’m getting to pissy about the lack or realism in this flick.
One of the pluses is Jensen Daggett, what a babe! It’s also interesting that both Walton Goggins and Kenny Johnson are both in this flick. I suppose the both of them were trying to get their foot in the door and playing in this movie was a step up. I forgive them.