Semi-Pro Review
by Steve Rhodes (steve DOT rhodes AT internetreviews DOT com)February 28th, 2008
SEMI-PRO
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2008 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): * 1/2
Popular comedian Will Ferrell is like the infamous amplifier in THIS IS SPINAL TAP. Constantly over-the-top, he has only one volume level -- eleven on a ten-point scale. Sometimes this excessive, in-your-face exuberance works, as it did in ELF and BLADES OF GLORY, but, more often, it just irritates with a fingers-across-the-blackboard effect, as it does in SEMI-PRO and did in TALLADEGA NIGHTS: THE BALLAD OF RICKY BOBBY and ANCHORMAN: THE LEGEND OF RON BURGUNDY.
This time, Ferrell plays Jackie Moon, the owner, manager, player and shameless promoter of the Flint, Michigan Tropics, a team in the American Basketball Association. The year is 1976, when the ABA is about to merge with the much better financed and known NBA (National Basketball Association). The top four ABA teams at the end of the season will join the NBA, while the others are to be "dissolved," a word that the ever-doofus Jackie claims not to understand.
Of course, in a movie filled with nothing but predictable moments, the Flint Tropics are in their league's cellar when the upcoming merger is announced. Will this team of incorrigible losers get it together enough in order to make it into fourth place before the season is over? Gosh, what do you think?
Jackie, although he isn't much as a player, manager, owner or promoter, does have one claim to fame. He can't puke. Yes, you read it right. This is a movie about a guy who can't throw-up. Trust me, you'll have no problem with your vomit reflex while watching this cinematic dreg, released in the February wasteland of films.
Although the movie tries to layer on a sentimental undercoat, with its tale of a working class team the fans don't care about, the film continually falls flat, which is also how its recycled jokes come across. There are a few nice moments in the film, worth a smile or two, but that's about it. The film, which has many low points, is at its lowest when Jackie finally figures out the skill of regurgitation.
Even if they aren't given much memorable to do, Woody Harrelson and Maura Tierney do the best they can. Harrelson plays a basketball player named Monix, whom Jackie gets in trade. The Tropics get Monix, while, in return, the other team is given the Tropics' only washing machine. Tierney hangs around, smiling nicely as Lynn, Monix's old flame.
The best part of the picture comes at the end, when the Tropics play the final game in the first and last "Flint Megabowl." It's not worth staying for, but, if you haven't walked out in the first hour, you might as well stay and see the ending.
SEMI-PRO runs 1:30. It is rated R for "language and some sexual content" and would be acceptable for kids around 12 and up.
My son Jeffrey, age 18, gave it * 1/2, complaining that Will Ferrell's one joke principle is that if you scream, it must be funny. He thought this movie was Ferrell at his worst, and he found the jokes stupid but not funny, with the puke humor being worst of all. He liked some of the basketball scenes, and he like Harrelson's performance, but that was about it.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, February 29, 2008. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
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