"Semi-Pro" is probably one of the more apt film titles this year. Everything about the film is done semi-well.
It's not surprising to see star Will Ferrell return to the role that serves him best: a cocksure guy in a position of minor power who tends to not realize how unimportant he really is.
Enter Jackie Moon, a one-hit wonder in the disco scene, who used the money he made from his hit song "Love Me Sexy" to buy the Flint Tropics. The Tropics are a Michigan basketball team in the short-lived American Basketball Association (ABA).
Jackie Moon is the owner, coach and star player on the Tropics, who are simply awful. He sports a 'fro (which Ferrell specifically grew for the movie) and hops around in ridiculously short shorts on the court, while wearing the tackiest outfits off court.
When he finds out that the ABA is going to fold and the Flint Tropics are not going to be absorbed into the NBA, Jackie decides that it's time to actually start playing basketball. He tries his hardest to get his team into fourth place, since fourth place brings the possibility of getting into the NBA.
In an effort to get a team that could actually compete, Moon trades away the team's washing machine to acquire a washed-up former NBA player with a bum knee. This star is Monix, played by Woody Harrelson ("White Men Can't Jump").
Harrelson's purpose in the film is to add a little drama. The reason his character decides to play for the Tropics is to earn the attention of an old flame.
Unfortunately, the romance adds nothing to the story and is, in fact, incredibly boring.
The rest of the team is made up of a predictably ragtag group of players, including the foreigner Vikadis, who can't speak a word of English.
Andre Benjamin ("Four Brothers") plays the one character that has legitimate growth throughout the film. As Coffee Black, he is the only player on the Tropics who has any shot of playing in the NBA, but he won't unless he can learn to be a little less selfish.
Apart from the players on the team, the only other characters worth mentioning are the two announcers. They are the only people (apart from Ferrell) to deliver real laughs. The tandem of Andrew Daly ("Mad T.V.") and Will Arnett ("Arrested Development") is excellent. They have dynamic chemistry throughout the movie.
The main issue with "Semi-Pro" is that it feels like a bunch of skits haphazardly thrown together.
It seems like there was no concrete script, just a rough outline. The movie meanders lazily from one scene to the next without any direction.
You simply do not care about any of the characters or what happens to them. While it is funny to watch Ferrell bumble around as the self-obsessed idiot that he plays so well, it does get old by the end of the movie.
"Semi-Pro" delivers a few laughs here and there, but it won't be remembered as one of Ferrell's better efforts - just semi-good. t&c;
