Semi-Pro

Figured the holiday was a great time to catch this movie, which I wasn't overly excited about, but thought it would be something to do on a lazy afternoon.

Got to the cinema a tad early and sat down and played some golf on my phone. About 10 mins in and I was the only one there. Awesome. Sadly about 5mins later two losers with no friends walked in, making it a cosy cinema of 3.

The film starts with a pre-game intro of the Flint Tropics, a struggling team in the former ABA basketball league. We learn from the get go that Jackie Moon (Ferrell, in a role not much of a stretch for him) is the team owner, promoter, coach as well as a player. Jackie brought the team on the back of his one-hit wonder "Love Me Sexy" and is in it just for the fame and fun. Before too long Jackie finds out his team will absorbed by the ABA-NBA merger...unless he can get them in the Top 4 teams. Jackie goes out and signs (from a trade for a washing machine) Monix, played by formerly good actor Woody Harrelson in a minor attempt to tun things around. Soon he makes some other changes, such as agreeing to let Monix become coach to get his team into the NBA. Will it work......? See it to find out.

There's some more good quirky Ferrell humour, but this isn't a classic. The story had a lot more potential but in some circumstances went too oddball and weird and missed some good opportunities, probably largely due to the extra screen time given to Ferrell. Give him a few better support comedians and this could have been a classic. They missed some great opportunities with the basketball action too. One of the early scenes was gold.....but then after that very little was paid attention to.

i'll be honest there are a few laughs in this film. But do not go to the cinema to see this film, just catch it on TV otherwise you'll come out of the cinema feeling you could have spent your on money on something more useful...like a pen, paper and proceed to write to the production company to let them know that they flaked out with this movie.

Ferrell is funny, its just the rest of the cast that aren't. The jokes throughout aren't particularly great. But i guess it is watchable.

I just hope this formula of sport/comedy film's is either scrapped. If it is used again hopefully someone will do a good job.

For the most part, I like Will Ferrell's comedy. I really do. I loved Talladega Nights, to be honest. I laughed throughout the whole thing. I had expected this to be a good bounce-back from Blades of Glory. I prayed that Mr. Ferrell just happened to make a flop and was back to making good movies. I was wrong.

I felt the plot itself was solid--I really like it as a non-comedic movie. But it insists on itself--it just begs to be laughed at. The problem with that is that it insists in all the wrong ways. For example, Shaun of the Dead is one of my all-time favorites, mostly because of the fact that it is a rather serious subject with scenes that could be seen as horrific and yet maintains to be laugh-out-loud hilarious every time I watch it. It insists on being a good movie, not on getting you to laugh at cheap jokes. That's where Semi-Pro went wrong. You have to either be ridiculous with a handful of serious elements (ala The Big Lebowski) or serious with a handful of comedic elements (ala Shaun of the Dead). Semi-Pro doesn't fit into either, because it's not good enough in either one of those categories.

I probably only laughed out loud maybe three or four times throughout the whole movie, and more out of a response to pure nonsense than actual comedic value. Like, "....what?!" rather than a response to pure hilarity. I am reminded of the "I'm on fire!" scene from Talladega Nights--hilarity. Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous--you just couldn't NOT laugh at it. This movie attempts to achieve the same ludicrous hilarity that Talladega Nights had...and fails miserably.

If you're a huge fan of Will Ferrell's comedy, or just Will Ferrell in general, then you may like this. Again, don't get me wrong, it's not a horrible movie, but don't expect anything epic. Unless, of course, you expect an epic fail, in which case you may be pleased.

So overall: decent movie, good storyline, great cast, horrible jokes and even worse comedic value lands it a 5 out of 10.

It was absolutely hilarious. I love this movie, I love the sarcasm that goes into making fun of amateur sports and how easy it is to make it as a funk singer.

This movie hinges on one simple fact: do you or do you not just enjoy Will Ferrel?

If the answer to that is yes, then you will enjoy this a lot. Because there's not much new doing here: it's Ferell as another idiotic, self-loving, loud and beef-headed, dim-witted professional...insert obscure profession or athlete. This is just "Anchorman", "Ricky Bobby", "Blades of Glory", or what have you, except in basketball. If you enjoy those movies, and Will Ferrel's shameless antics (I'm not saying they're bad, I'm just saying I want to see him try something else now and then) then here's one for you.

But I also give kudos to the supporting players (like Woody Harrelson, who in a stroke of brilliance, is acting like he's in a real drama and not a spoof), the inspired 70's soundtracks and references. 6/10