The one lesson Hollywood has never learnt, is to give up on something when it's been done to death. For instance, the 1st 3 Police Academy movies were good, the remaining 3000 of them weren't.The same thing happened to the Major League movies, the 1st was brilliant, the 2nd was mediocre with some excellently funny moments dotted about here and there and the 3rd was terrible.This is not because Major League 3 - Back to The Minors is rubbish, far from it. I found it to be a very entertaining movie. What killed it dead, was the decision to make it part of the Major League franchise.This movie could have easily stood on its own two feet as just another great baseball movie. Instead, in a bid to tie it in with the two movies that came before, we have a movie that just tries too hard to live up to a reputation that had already been destroyed by Major League 2.With the exception of 3 or 4 cast members, most of the original actors did not return for this outing and what we're left with is a contrived plot for the actors that did just to tie this in with the franchise.Roger Dorn, (Corbin Bernsen), now completely retired from playing, is now the owner of the Minnesota Twins and all the affiliated feeder clubs associated with them. He hires his old teammate and washed up pitcher Gus Cantrell, (Scott Bakula), to manage his AAA team The South Carolina Buzz, who like in the 1st movie, are a bunch of no talent misfits until Cantrell licks them in to shape. Already with the Buzz are Rube Baker, (Eric Bruskotter), who is later joined by old Indian's Teammate Pedro Cerrano, (Dennis Haysbert). Just to give that very much unneeded link to the past.On a visit to see Roger, Gus is reunited with another old team mate of his, the vain and extremely arrogant Leonard Huff , (Ted McGinley). It is evident that these two men detest one another and have done for years. Huff is always ready to belittle Gus regarding what he perceives as his failed career and his minor league status, and Gus despising Huff's brutal and arrogant style of baseball management.More out of rivalry than for entertainment, an Exhibition match is set up for the Buzz to play the Twins at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, (Sadly now demolished). Realising the Buzz are on the verge of winning, Huff fakes a power cut to try to save some face.However, the press have latched on to the rivalry and tension between Gus and Huff and require a definitive winner to the grudge match and both sets of players are merely pawns in a private war between the two managers. Only this time, Gus insists that the Twins play at their ballpark.ML3 is a really entertaining movie, ruined by a desire to shape it in to something it didn't need to be. Whilst I won't begrudge any actor their pay cheque, The Roger Dorn character didn't need to be Roger Dorn, Cerrano didn't need to be Cerrano and no character from the previous 2 movies needed to be revived for this to be a good film. In fact, it would have been better had they not done this at all.However, one character that did return that I was genuinely glad to see, was the brilliant Bob Uecker reprising his role of wisecracking sportscaster Harry Doyle. Most of the movie's belly laughs come from his droll commentary and his rivalry with his stuffed shirt Minnesota counterpart.One annoying aspect of the movie is the annoying Guitar riff that's played every time a cast member utters the name of the Twin's star player and resident psychopath Carlos Liston, played well by Lobo Sebastian.Bakula is really good here and so is McGinley. McGinley is often given a lot of stick by some for overplaying his characters. His character here is worthy of some overplay as he should be a figure of dislike and ridicule and McGinley made the character of Leonard Huff exactly as he should be.For the guys, Jensen Daggett plays Bakula's love interest and very pleasing on the eye she is too and it's a shame she hasn't done a great deal since.A great little movie, but sadly, one only created to sit in the shadow of it's big brothers. However, sometimes even the runt of the litter can stand up for itself.Enjoy!!!

Gus Cantrell (Scott Bakula) is an aging minor league baseball pitcher who knows all the tricks. Roger Dorn (Corbin Bernsen) hires him to manage his minor league team with a great prospect in over-confident Billy Anderson (Walton Goggins). Rube Baker (Eric Bruskotter) is back with the same problem as before. Pedro Cerrano (Dennis Haysbert) returns to baseball after spending time away searching for something. Taka Tanaka (Takaaki Ishibashi) has opened a putt-putt golf course but he's tired of the business. He also joins this ragtag AAA team. When faced with old nemesis Leonard Huff (Ted McGinley), he gets into a challenge between his minor league team and Huff's Minnesota Twins.I love Scott Bakula as an actor, but it's a mistake to put him in the lead. If Dennis Haysbert is willing to come back, then it would be much better to have Cerrano as a new coach. People love the franchise because of not just baseball but the characters as well. It just makes sense to have an original character as the lead. I also didn't find Walton Goggins that believable as the new young prospect. He's not that young looking, and he needs more muscle to be a big hitter. And losing the Cleveland Indians doesn't help although that may be beyond the filmmakers' control. That's not a rub against The Twins. It's just that the franchise started with the Indians and there's a history.

I am a HUGE fan of the first MAJOR LEAGUE. It is a fantastic movie! The first film in this trilogy has a very witty script, great performances from a stellar cast, and is just a well made, funny, exciting and entertaining film.A big reason the first film succeeded was because it was rated R. It had (oh my gosh) swear words. It was believable. The sequel, which I've seen twice and both times fucckking hated (censor that IMDb people) failed for the same reason the first film was a hit. The third film, which I'm sure was Direct-to-video, had a chance to be something special. No pressure from the studio to produce millions of dollars, it could have been a mini-Bull Durham, but just a tad more silly. It started off well, but then they started with the recurring characters. If it's not Snipes, Sheen or Berenger, to be honest, no one gives a shhitt (Censor that too)Again, everything must come back to the budget. It's hard enough to make a quality film, and even harder with no money and a shittttty script, but someone on the set must have just given up halfway through. All the checks were cashed and they said, "Well, the first film was great so let's just think about the next project."The main roles were well acted, and the direction was fine - but they just had NO F-ING STORY.

Horribly unfunny comedy that jumps through all the hoops of a misdirected and miswritten comedy sequel. Everything that made the first film amusing and funny is lacking here, and so is the cast - in fact, the only returning castmember is Corbin Bernsen. And no wonder - just look at his film profile.One to skip.1/5 stars -John Ulmer