“Semi-Pro” only semi funny
What do you get when you mix “Anchorman” and “Dodgeball”? The answer: a movie that’s just not really worth seeing.
“Semi-Pro” is the new Will Ferrell comedy about when the ABA merged with the NBA in the ’70s. The movie begins with us finding out about the character Jackie Moon, played by Will Ferrell (“Anchorman”). Moon makes it big as a pop singer and buys his favorite ABA team, the Flint Michigan Tropics. Along with being the owner, pre-game announcer and promoter, Moon is also the Tropics’ power forward.
When Moon finds out the ABA will be merging with the NBA, he’s ecstatic. The only problem is that the Tropics average about five fans a game and couldn’t win if their lives depended on it. A deal is struck that will send the four teams with the best records to the NBA, so Moon sets out to at least achieve a fourth-place finish.
Moon enlists the help of Monix, played by Woody Harrelson (“No Country for Old Men”). Monix played on the championship Celtics team but sat on the bench the entire time. So now the stage is set. The Tropics are the underdogs, trying to achieve the minimum requirements to send them to the NBA.
The problem with “Semi-Pro” comes when almost every scene in the movie feels like it’s ripped off from another Will Ferrell movie. Jackie Moon reminded me so much of Ron Burgundy that if it weren’t for the curly hair, I would’ve believed that Burgundy moonlighted as an ABA basketball player.
“Semi-Pro” is also a lot more vulgar than other Ferrell movies. I’m not one to care about ratings, or why a movie is rated what it is, but I felt the added swearing and sex jokes did nothing to make the movie any funnier. Yes, an “F-word,” or any other cuss word, used here and there in the right situation, said at the right time, can indeed be funny. But, in this movie there is no timing. The characters swear at random, and it takes you away from the moment.
I did learn one thing from this movie, though. Will Ferrell is definitely living in the wrong era. For some reason, the powers that be decided Ferrell would not live his adult life in the ’70s, which was a big mistake. He seems so at home in that time period in the move, just as he is in “Anchorman.”
“Semi-Pro” does have its moments. The funniest jokes are the basketball jokes. I liked that Moon’s idea of trash talking the ref was threatening to kill his family and burn his house down. But everything else is just forgettable. The thing that makes “Anchorman” and many other Ferrell movies so funny is that they’re quotable. But, as I’m sitting here, trying to think of quotes people are going to repeat over and over again from “Semi-Pro,” I can’t come up with even one.
I guess field reporter Brian Fantana wasn’t talking about Ferrell movies when he said, “They’ve done studies, you know. Sixty percent of the time it works, every time.”
Grade: C-
-aaron.peck@aggiemail.usu.edu