Starring: Will Ferrell, Woody Harrelson, Andre Benjamin
Director: Kent Alterman
Release Date: February 29, 2008
Running time: 85min
MPAA Rating: R
Distributors: New Line Cinema

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Review by Jeremy Welsch

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We have been conditioned to take some things in life for granted. For example, I know that every October I go on a camping trip into the middle of nowhere. Every weekend I see at least one new movie in the theatre. And  Will Ferrell is one of the most consistent comedic actors working today. That is why it pains me physically to type the following statement:

Will Ferrell’s act is growing stale.

It was bound to happen sooner or later and I should have seen it coming. I guess I just wasn’t ready to see it happen so soon.

Semi-Pro is the story of Jackie Moon (Ferrell), a singer whose hit single “Love Me Sexy” made him rich. He used the profits to buy an ABA basketball team, the Flint Michigan Tropics, who just happen to be the worst team in the league. This may have something to do with the fact that Jackie is the owner, coach, promotional manager and star player. He may not be a very good player, but he’s a star nonetheless. In 1976, just before the ABA collapses, the NBA agrees to merge the four best teams in the ABA into their league. Jackie trades the team washing machine for former Boston Celtic benchwarmer Ed Monix (Woody Harrelson) to make a run at 4th place and a spot in the NBA. Think: a dumbed down basketball version of Slap Shot and you’ll be close.

The good news and the bad news is that the movie is just okay. There were laughs, even a few out loud moments, but they were too few and far between to sustain the whole movie. This just gets sadder when you realize the movie is only 85 minutes long. Do not expect anything more from this than a few hours killed on a Saturday afternoon. It follows every sports, comedy, and movie cliché in the book

Looking back at his previous films, you realize Ferrell works best when given a good script, provided he is allowed the freedom to ad-lib within that structure. The trouble with Semi-Pro is that there seems to be no script. It felt like they had a basic idea and told the actors to just wing it once the director yelled “Action!”. The potential for catching lightening in a bottle is there when you allow for ad-libbing, but you have to have a starting point. This concept may work on Curb Your Enthusiasm, but it didn’t work quite so well here.

  What also strikes me as odd are some of the career choices Woody Harrelson makes. His dramatic acting aside, his choices for comedic roles are all over the place. But I can summarize it in one sentence: better than Play It to the Bone but nowhere near as good as Kingpin. Hell, it may only be marginally better than White Men Can’t Jump. Yeah, that doesn’t really narrow the gap, does it? OK, maybe it took more than one sentence… but suffice it to say that even the funny parts of Semi-Pro weren’t funny because of Woody.

I haven’t completely given up on Will Ferrell movies (Step Brothers actually looks pretty funny) but I think it might be time for him to foray into new territory the way he did in Stranger Than Fiction - give him a chance to grow a little bit. At the very least, if that doesn't work out, he can always come back and churn out roles like the ones that made him famous. That seemed to work for Jim Carrey. Oh wait…

And there’s the rub.

Film Rating: ** out of ****

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