While cooped up during this pandemic, take a look into the abstruse corners of Netflix or YouTube Movies.
Obscure Movie Review explores films that are more-or-less mainstream (or at least supposed to be), with actors and directors you've heard of, but flew under the radar.
Sports movies are almost always tales of underdog perseverance. However, this 1998 sequel [that wasn't really a sequel] perhaps proves that sometimes you shouldn't forge ahead against the odds - particularly if you can't get the main cast to return.
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Scouting new talent
Back to the Minors is the third installment in the Major League sports comedy series of movies, that began with the 1989 hit - lead by Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen, Rene Russo, Wesley Snipes, and Corbin Bernsen - and was followed by the critically panned but still successful 1994 sequel.
However, in number-three only Bernsen returns, for little more than an extended cameo, as Roger Dorn who is now the owner of the fictionalised version of Major League Baseball team the Minnesota Twins. Who recruits the soon to be retired Gus Cantrell (Scott Bakula) to manage the Twins' minor league feeder team The Buzz.
And although Cantrell doesn't have much to work with - expect for the big hitting Billy "Downtown" Anderson (Walton Goggins) - he has the side firing on all cylinders. Then after a clash with Twins' manager Leonard Huff (Ted McGinley), he's goaded into putting his unfancied Buzz up against a team that's out of their league.
You probably noticed...
Even in the late 1990s there was still something of a divide between being a "film actor" and being a "television actor", which was typically only crossed by moviestars looking to restart an ailing career. So it's unusual that this is lead by performers better known for their small screen work.
Speaking of those back for cameos, Dennis Haysbert was in both of the previous Major League films, with Takaaki Ishibashi and Eric Bruskotter reprising their roles from the sequel. While actual baseball commentator - and former player turned actor - Bob Uecker also returned.
Why is it obscure?
The movie tanked badly at the box office, making just $3.5 million back on an $18 million budget.
There wasn't any sympathy from the critics either, with it holding a 21 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Although it's interesting to note that the aforementioned, panned Major League II only has five per cent.
Despite being part of the franchise, Back to the Minors is considered to be more of a spin-off than a sequel.
And when there was talk of bringing back Berenger, Sheen, and Snipes for another installment, that project would've been Major League III - with the 1998 film likely to have been completely glossed over. However, the idea was floated in 2010, shortly before Sheen's very public meltdown and Snipes' income tax conviction that landed him in prison soon after.
OBSCURE MOVIE REVIEWS RATINGS:
- Hidden Gem - the highest rating, a genuinely good movie that shouldn't be obscure;
- Missed Opportunity - a flawed movie that had potential but fell short for whatever reason;
- Guilty Pleasure - not a good movie, but enjoyable, think 'so bad it's good';
- Best Forgotten - obscure for a reason, don't bother with it.
The verdict
BEST FORGOTTEN
Back to the Minors isn't actually that bad. But it's not a Major League movie.
Most of the characters have no link to the prior story lines. And writing in Dorn the way they did, seems like a stretch.
Maybe it would've worked better as a stand-alone film about a washed-up former player trying to turnaround a loser team. And while that might make it sound more like a 'Missed Opportunity', the catch-22 is that without the [very tenuous] Major League link it likely wouldn't have been made.
In the end, this one shouldn't have stepped up to the plate.
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