A Nutshell Review: Semi-Pro

Rating: 6/10 (23 March 2008)

Will Ferrell continues with sports theme comedies with Semi-Pro, a throwback to the 70s where the American Basketball Association (ABA) is merged in part with the National Basketball Association (NBA) which we are all quite familiar with. With his Talladega Nights on Nascar racing and Blades of Glory on ice figure skating, if I were to rank his latest effort amongst the three, unfortunately it will be ranked the last.
Talladega Nights really cracked me up, and there were many moments where I laughed until my tears became uncontrollable - that's the personal gauge I use for comedies just in case you want to know. With Blades of Glory, it gets a little tired with his selfish character trying to go one up against his closest rival, which sort of degenerated into dramatic fare of brotherhood and friendship. With Semi-Pro, he continues with this character trait of cockiness (yes, it does get very tired after a while) as owner-coach-player of a fictional ABA team known as the Flint Tropics.
As the story goes, the ABA is into its final season because of the impending merger with the NBA, and the top 4 teams will get absorbed into the NBA, while the rest will have to be dissolved. So it's up to Ferrell's Jackie Moon to motivate his team, and to wheel and deal with the operational aspects of the game like boosting dwindling attendances and designing gimmicks, to keep their hopes alive. Having an incompetent team, save for star player Clarence "Coffee" Black (Andre Benjamin from Outkast), means that realistically they're no- hopers for the top 4 spots, at least not until Jackie trades a washing machine (don't ask) for an NBA player Monix (Woody Harrelson), who comes in to impart some of his elite knowledge of the game, despite being unpopular at first, and even causing a
Actually, I thought that comedy was quite secondary in Semi-Pro. What it did have however are attention to detail on the differences between the ABA and the NBA leagues, starting with the multi-colored ball used. Half-time entertainment, courtesy of Jackie Moon, seemed very tired, with the best bits already included in the trailer. Other than that, the movie's quite bogged down by Harrelson's role in holding a candle for an ex-flame, which unfortunately didn't get past the censors scissors.
But credit be given though to 2 things in the movie. One, a scene where the major players are seated around a table gambling, and involving a revolver, which does take a heck of its own sweet time to get to the point and deliver its punchline which somewhat fizzled. The other, is the totally inane song Love Me Sexy. Without these two elements, Semi-Pro really deserves to be relegated.