"Semi-Pro" is All-Bad

Rating: 3/10 (2 July 2008)

"Semi-Pro" is an aggressively unfunny dumb-jock comedy that marks a possible low point in the careers of Will Ferrell, Woody Harrelson and Maura Tierney (although the latter, lucky for her, is not really in the movie long enough to do her reputation permanent damage).
It's the 1970's and the short-lived American Basketball Association (1967-1976) is getting ready to close its doors due to a lack of money and little interest on the part of the three major networks in televising its games. However, four of the league's top-ranking teams will remain intact and be absorbed into the more successful NBA. That means that the Tropics, the fictitious team from Flint, Michigan, will soon be disbanding, unless the players can get their act together and reverse their current losing streak. Ferrell plays Jackie Moon, who doubles as both the head coach and one of the key players on the Tropics. As such, it's his job to whip the players into shape if the team is to have any hope of becoming one of the chosen four.
Here is a movie in which literally nothing works - not the concept, not the performances and certainly not the writing. Indeed, the makers of "Semi-Pro" seem to think that merely throwing the decidedly doughy Ferrell into a basketball uniform and having him shooting hoops with a bunch of equally dweeby knuckleheads would be just too hilarious for words. It isn't. In fact, in this movie virtually every joke, pratfall and sight gag lands on the court with a resounding thud, despite the best efforts of its hapless cast. I guess the one lesson to be gleaned from all this is that funky fashions and quaint '70's references alone are not enough to carry a movie, especially when one is stuck with a script as devoid of taste, imagination and humor as the one Scot Armstrong has come up with here.
And, of course, as appears to be the case with all the worst comedies, "Semi-Pro" finds it necessary to end with an outtake blooper reel, on the bizarre assumption that if we didn't laugh at any of the bits that DID make it into the final product, then we will somehow fall on the floor in hysterics at all the ones that DIDN'T. Sorry, fellas, but I believe I gave my all by sitting through the actual movie to be still hanging around seeing what I missed.
Dopey and depressing.