Semi-Pro
I think I have to start this review by stating the
obvious.
I’m a guy. I am genetically programmed to laugh when someone
gets kicked in a sensitive part of their body. I might even guffaw when
someone trips and falls, or people start to dance in awkward ways.
That’s why I don’t hate Semi-Pro
Set in 1976, Will Ferrell stars as Jackie Moon – the owner,
coach and star player on the Flint Tropics basketball team in the
American Basketball Association (ABA). After becoming a one hit wonder
and millionaire with his disco tune Love Me Sexy (back in 1970 before
disco was popular), Jackie has put his heart and soul into his hometown
basketball team, even if it is misplaced at times. However,
Jackie’s dream is about to come to an end. The ABA is
planning a merger with the NBA, but only the top four teams in the ABA
will become part of the NBA.
Can the perennial losers from
Flint win enough games to make it to
fourth place?
Can they draw enough fans?
While following a familiar style for Will Ferrell fans, Semi-Pro
is a
movie split into two personalities as it tries to be the Slap
Shot of
basketball, but can’t commit. On one hand, you have a goofy
Will Ferrell comedy with some cartoonish characters taking silliness
overboard for our amusement, and succeeding about half of the time.
Yet, on the other hand, you have a traditional inspirational sports
movie about the underdog trying to overcome the odds to win the big
game. This split personality hurts the movie.
Semi-Pro is so clichéd
it becomes the movie it is supposed
to mock! You would think it would intentionally poke at the conventions
it adopts, which would make for a funnier movie, but writer Scot
Armstrong and director Kent Alterman don’t go for it. A love
story is tossed in, but never really developed, and the audience gets
to see a montage of the team coming together to propel themselves to
the point where they might win the big game and finish in 4th place,
but Semi-Pro is supposed to be funny.
While Ferrell is acting as goofy and crazy as you would expect, he is
horribly out of tune with the rest of the movie, even if he makes you
laugh the most. Some cast members like Will Arnett, Jackie Earle Haley
and Andrew Daly got the memo about being funny, the rest of the cast,
including Woody Harrelson, Andre Benjamin, and Maura Tierney act as if
they are in a movie like Invincible
or Rudy.
The two styles contrast in the worst way possible, and leaves the
audience half satisfied. It is almost as if the cast and crew were
playing a cruel prank on Ferrell seeing how long he would act in an
imbecilic fashion for laughs, while everyone else is playing it
straight. Semi-Pro is screaming out to be a parody
of the traditional
sports movie, especially in the hands of Ferrell, who does this better
than anyone associated with movies like Meet The Spartans
or Epic Movie,
but no one
answers the call to arms.
You can’t blame anyone in the cast for the contrasting
approaches. The blame lies with Alterman, and maybe Ferrell, who should
have realized this was going wrong and fixed it.
Semi-Pro is rated R for language
and some sexual content
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