Bernie Mac plays a retired baseball star version of his corrosive TV persona in a comedy that’s essentially an extended ad for ESPN. Ironically, though, the insertion of true-life elements provides the film’s few laughs. Mac plays Stan Ross, an egotistical slugger who left the Milwaukee Brewers after logging his 3000th hit – or so he thought. Nine years later, officials discover a counting error and find that he’s three hits shy of the milestone. Similar to “Space Cowboys,” he struggles to get back into shape and returns to the game, where he clashes with new-school players and has a fling with an ESPN reporter (Angela Bassett) with whom he’d dallied in his heyday – one of the most unrealistic elements of a film that seems to pride itself on being rooted in reality. Rated: PG-13 for sexual content and language. Running time: 103 min. Rating: 1 1/2 out of 4 stars.

‘Sky Captain, the World of Tomorrow’

This could have been a dazzling success or a dizzying failure. It’s actually a bit of both – an ambitious if highly derivative mix of live actors and digital technology, of futuristic sci-fi fantasy and old-school Hollywood adventure. There’s nothing else like it, so for that reason alone it’s worth seeing. Yet pieces of it are just like every movie you’ve ever seen. For about the first 10 minutes, “Sky Captain” is a visual marvel, evocatively recalling the look of German expressionism and film noir.

Intrepid newspaper reporter Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow) is searching for clues to the disappearances of several worldwide scientists, and seeks the help of a former love, the dashing aviator Capt. H. Joseph Sullivan or “Sky Captain” (Jude Law). But once Joe and Polly leave New York to continue their investigation, the film becomes an “Indiana Jones” wannabe. Rated: PG for sequences of stylized sci-fi violence and brief mild language. Running time: 107 min. Rating: 2 1/2 out of 4 stars.

‘Wimbledon’

Paul Bettany upstages the effervescent (and top-billed) Kirsten Dunst in this by-the-numbers romantic comedy set in the tennis world. Previously a supporting figure in films including “A Knight’s Tale” and “A Beautiful Mind,” the British actor proves himself an engaging leading man as fading tennis star Peter Colt.

Dunst plays an up-and-coming, bad-girl American tennis player who serves as his inspiration on and off the court. The film was shot during Wimbledon last year, which gives it a sense of realism and immediacy. And some of the matches are staged spectacularly (with the help of CGI), though we could have done without repeated use of the ball-cam effect, in which the camera seems to swoop down like a searing serve and smack the grass with a thwack. Rated: PG-13 for language, sexuality and partial nudity. Running time: 100 minutes. Rating: 2 1/2 out of 4 stars.