Entertaining, but not the stuff of his heyday.

Rating: 7/10 (3 July 2008)

As a student, I have always enjoyed Will Ferrell films. In fact I have walked out of some films still in stitches. I have really enjoyed Old School, Anchorman and Kicking and Screaming as well as his Saturday Night Live DVDs. He does tend to play either the arrogant tool (Ron Burgundy) or the angry idiot (Frank The Tank) and he has done this well. I also enjoyed his other cameo roles in Zoolander and Wedding Crashers. However, it seems that he is getting more disappointing nowadays, which is a shame (Talladega Nights a prime example).
I watched Semi-Pro on a plane and I have to say it was funny (I remember waking up four people laughing at the puke scene so much) but I struggled to find any storyline to it. However I have never required a storyline with a Ferrell movie before.
Set in the 70s, Ferrell plays Jackie Moon, a cross between Burgundy and Frank the Tank (although not brilliant). He takes control of the Flint Tropics, an all-show basketball team. He becomes coach, owner, choreographer and power-forward for his own team! When he discovers that only 4 teams will be merged into the NBA, he decides that he is going to try and improve his teams fortunes to ensure they get into the NBA. Moon's only talent is promoting, as seen by his "corn dog night" and when he wrestles a bear to increase struggling ticket prices. To get his team to the NBA from bottom of the ABA, he enlists Ed Monix (Woody Harrelson) who tries to give some structure back to his team while rekindling an old flame.
That is pretty much the story, it doesn't really move as a plot, but it is simply hilarious in parts. The funny parts include when Jackie Moon wrestles a bear, an impromptu poker game between Jackie and his friends (irrelevent to the plot, but still funny!) and plenty of decent one-liners.
The main comic attraction is not Ferrell's anger or arrogance in character (Like in previous movies) but in the commentators of the game, where Lou Redwood (Will Arnett) and Dick Pepperfield (Andrew Daly) are simply hilarious as a satire of sports commentators, Redwood being the colourful claims-he-was-in-Vietnam tyro, with lines such as "I like to smoke when I drink" after Pepperfield asks him if he wouldn't mind putting his cigarette out while supposedly commentating on a game. Pepperfield is the old-school, reassuring nice guy of commentating, and nearly all the funny jokes are about his wife! Harrelson is good in his role of resurgent former great, and brings a good edge to the film, and Andre Benjamin is good as Clarence, the only decent player for the Tropics. He is funny in places too.
To summarise, Semi-Pro is very funny in certain places, vaguely interesting at points, but is quite crude, non-purposeful nor thought-provoking. But I really enjoyed it, it brightened my flight anyways! It is a shame that the only thing I can say about this is that it is funny and entertaining, but I have come to expect that except for Blades of Glory, this is the latest in a less enjoyable category of Ferrell films. I hope he creates something very good in the future, but I wouldn't bet on it.
If you like Will Ferrell you will like this, if not, make sure you have your pillow ready and are seated comfortably - It's going to be a long flight.