Semi-Pro (2008)
Directed by Kent Alterman
Written by Scot Armstrong
Starring Will Ferrell, Woody Harrelson, Maura Tierney, Andre Benjamin
Release Date February 9th, 2008
Published
Will Ferrell is quite a sports fan. Now on his third sports comedy in three years, following 2006's Talledegha Nights and 2007's Blades of Glory, Ferrel shows no signs of sports fatigue in Semi-Pro a basketball comedy set in the seventies with all of the non-sequiter goodness of Talledegha Nights without the gay bashing of Blades of Glory. It's not the perfect synthesis of Ferrell's good natured physicality and out of context freestyle banter, but it will make you laugh. Set in the 1970's of Ferrell's Anchorman imagination, Semi-Pro once again indulges the era of jive turkey, high heeled boots, and lots and lots of disco.
It's 1976 and Jackie Moon (Will Ferrell) is riding high on the success of his one hit wonder chart topper 'Love Me Sexy'. With the money he's made from his disco hit, Jackie bought an American Basketball Association franchise and brought it to his hometown of Flint Michigan. The Flint Tropics are the worst team in the ABA but as owner, coach, promoter and starting power forward, Jackie Moon seems oblivious to the team's disrepair. Unfortunately for Jackie the league is about to fold. Four of the teams, the best in the league, are being folded into the NBA at the end of the season and the Tropics will not be one of them.
Appealing to the other folding franchises, Jackie bargains that the top four teams in the ABA standings be the ones to go to the NBA. Now he needs to turn the team around and start winning if he wants to save his beloved Tropics. To help out he trades the team washing machine for a former NBA benchwarmer named Monix (Woody Harrelson) who came to Flint not to play basketball but to win back his ex-girlfriend Lynn (Maura Tierney). As he clashes with the Tropics star player Coffee Black (Andre Benjamin), Monix once again finds his game and begins teaching the Tropics real basketball.
Now can the team win enough games to finish in fourth place? Can Jackie draw enough fans to keep the franchise afloat and can Monix win back Lynn?
These aren't exactly points of great drama but they are enough of a semblance of a plot to be more than what was offered in the disappointing Blades of Glory. Ferrell here, teamed with director Kent Alterman, here at least attempts to tell a story in between the non-sequiturs. Harrelson and Tierney's characters may be underdeveloped but they are welcome enough actors that we root for them on the periphery of the story. In the meantime Ferrell sings, wrestles bears, roller skates and pukes, the anything for a laugh ethos that has made him a beloved comic presence.
Semi-Pro fails to reach the comic heights of Anchorman or Old School, Ferrell truly at his best, but it is funny, at times uproariously funny. Ferrell and his cast of some of the funniest character actors in the business, including Andy Richter, Will Arnett, David Koechner, Will Corddry and SNL alum Tim Meadows, can't help but be funny even in the most outlandish, out of context and over the top scenes. Scenes that would not work with average actors, work here because of these skilled comedians. The jokes have no relation to the movie but you are laughing and that is really all you can ask.
