Semi-Pro (2008)

O Masterpiece
O Excellent
X Rental
O OK
O Mediocrity
O Avoid

Review by Jason Pyles / February 29, 2008

“Semi-Pro” is semi-funny. But then again, any movie that has Will Ferrell karate-chopping a grizzly bear in the neck is worth checking out.

The year is 1976. The town is Flint, Michigan. And the game is basketball. Jackie Moon (Will Ferrell) owns, coaches, pre-game-announces and plays power-forward for the Tropics, an American Basketball Association (ABA) team. He is also the team’s “expert choreographer” and promoter.

A one-hit wonder, Moon got all his money from his song “Love Me Sexy,” a comical, steamy little tune that evokes Barry White. The Tropics’ motto, which is enforced by Moon, is ELE (no, not Extinction Level Event, you “Deep Impact” fans) but simply “Everybody Love Everybody.” Don’t forget: This is the ‘70s.

But changes are afoot. The ABA is quickly going under. And at the end of this current season, four ABA teams will merge with the NBA and become professional franchises. The four teams with the best records will be exalted and the losers will be extinct. The problem is, Jackie Moon’s Tropics are more entertainers than basketball players (but not like the Harlem Globetrotters).

And that brings up a good point. Basketball fans shouldn’t expect to see a comical version of “Hoosiers” (1986). Let’s remember, this is a Will Ferrell movie, after all; and though he’s a tall man, you don’t get the feeling from the movie that basketball is one of his hobbies. Indeed, Ferrell’s “Blades of Glory” (2007) with Jon Heder has more ice skating than “Semi-Pro” has basketball, which is fine. The point is, don’t expect a big basketball flick.

“Semi-Pro” is great at resurrecting the ‘70s. We get nice touches like jokes about the variations on the “high-five” (there were many), America’s newest food crazes, Pong, the invention of new basketball plays and “Mother, Jugs & Speed” on a movie marquis, which did in fact hit theaters in 1976.

Aside from the bout with Dewie the Killer Bear (which gives a shout-out to “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story”), the funniest scene involves a crowded poker table, a not-loaded handgun and the words “jive turkey.” The movie is worth seeing for this one scene, but I’m not sure anybody younger than 18 should see it. It’s not that it’s dirty, it’s just reckless.

Overall, “Semi-Pro” isn’t a bottom-rung comedy like “Witless Protection.” It’s more along the lines of “Hot Rod” (2007): funny but not hilarious; good but not great. “Semi-Pro” missteps by having Will Ferrell semi-worried and semi-responsible, instead of turning him to his usual full-blown mania. If you’d like to see Will Ferrell in a worrisome role, on the other hand, make sure you see “Stranger Than Fiction” (2006). It is, without question, his best movie to date and one of the best films of 2006.

Directed by Kent Alterman
Will Ferrell / Woody Harrelson / André Benjamin
Comedy / Sports 90 min.
MPAA: R (for language and some sexual content)

U.S. Release Date: February 29, 2008
Copyright 2008: 249