Major League: Back to the Minors (1998)
a review by Christian Pyle
1989's "Major League" was a delightful surprise. I didn't expect much of it when I decided to watch it on cable, but it proved to be fresh and funny. However, when the appeal of a movie is its freshness, the sequels are virtually guaranteed to be stale. That's certainly true of "Major League II" and the most recent entry, "Major League: Back to the Minors."
The title is, of course, a contradiction. Shouldn't it be "Minor League?" That contradiction suggests the lengths to which writer/director John Warren has gone to squeeze a third movie out of the formula established by the first movie. Original stars Charlie Sheen and Tom Berenger (who returned for "Major League II") are not around, leaving Corbin Bernsen the only original headliner to make the third movie. The other veterans who return (Dennis Haysbert as voodoo-inspired batter Cerrano and Takaaki Ishibashi as Tanaka, who was introduced in "League II") seem to be around just to lend legitimacy to the enterprise. The only returning cast member who produces any laughs is Bob Uecker as radio announcer Harry Doyle, inexplicably broadcasting the games of a minor league team far from his home turf.
The protagonist this time around is retiring pitcher Gus Cantrell (Scott Bakula), who is hired by Minnesota Twins owner Roger Dorn (Bernsen) to manage the Twins' AAA team, the Buzz. You can write the movie from here: he finds a group of misfits who need to learn how to play together as a team in order to win. There's a future superstar whose ego keeps him from growing (Walton Goggins), an ex-ballet dancer (Kenneth Johnson), a broken-down old timer (Thom Barry), twin outfielders both named Juan (the DiFilippo triplets), and a couple pitchers with throwing problems (Judson Mills and Peter Mackenzie). Along the way, Gus picks up Cerrano and Tanaka (Gus is supposedly an old teammate of theirs, even though he wasn't in either of the preceding films). Sum total: none. The entire enterprise is artificial, and the cast is not ready for the Hollywood majors.
Gus' antagonist is Twins manager Leonard Huff (Ted McGinley). Leonard is a slimy, sniveling little egotist, and the Twins are lazy, spoiled, and full of themselves. (Even watching the first movie I wondered why any real-life team would lend itself to being caricatured in this manner). Gus challenges Leonard to a match, the Buzz vs. the Twins. (Wanna guess who wins?)
"Back to the Minors" is a movie that has no reason to exist. There's hardly a laugh in it, the cast is weak, and the first movie left no room for even one sequel.
Grade: F
© 1999 Christian L. Pyle
Read my reviews and others at the Mad Review: <http://www.wpd.net/madreview/>.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews