Will Ferrell riffs another sport in the comedy SEMI-PRO. Following up on the success of TALLADEGA NIGHTS and BLADES OF GLORY, Ferrell teams up with director Kent Altman and writer Scot Armstrong to seek laughs at the expense of the ABA, a 1970’s professional basketball league. Ferrell is Jackie Moon, a one-hit wonder on the pop charts, who turns his singing success into basketball stardom. He buys the Flynt Tropics, and enlists himself as the head coach and starting power forward. The ABA is going through a financial crisis, and its competitor, the National Basketball Association has offered a buyout of the league, with the top four teams merging with the NBA. The Tropics are near the bottom of the ABA standings, but that won’t stop Moon and crew from reaching for the top.
In spite of the pulled-up tube socks, groovy 70’s soundtrack and funniest hairdos since KINGPIN, SEMI-PRO fails because it relies too heavily on its star player to deliver all of the comedic scoring. The opening moments of SEMI-PRO are its best, serving up Moon’s catchy, hilarious and vulgar
number one hit, “Love Me Sexy”. If the rest of the film were written as silly and on the mark as “Love Me Sexy”, SEMI-PRO would have been a laugh-fest. Ferrell can perform in these roles in his sleep, and that appears to be what Altman and Armstrong were relying on. Although not as painfully bad as KICKING AND SCREAMING, the writing in SEMI-PRO leaves little to be desired. A certain nostalgia for the 70’s may be warranted, but many of the jokes are derived from lame references and outlandish fashions. Additional lazy scripting comes in the form of an underdeveloped and unnecessary love story between mid-season Tropic acquisition Monix, played by Woody Harrelson, and his ex-girlfriend played by Maura Tierney. SEMI-PRO doesn’t even live up to its title, attempting amateurish jokes which often miss the mark.
Grade: C-
In spite of the pulled-up tube socks, groovy 70’s soundtrack and funniest hairdos since KINGPIN, SEMI-PRO fails because it relies too heavily on its star player to deliver all of the comedic scoring. The opening moments of SEMI-PRO are its best, serving up Moon’s catchy, hilarious and vulgar
number one hit, “Love Me Sexy”. If the rest of the film were written as silly and on the mark as “Love Me Sexy”, SEMI-PRO would have been a laugh-fest. Ferrell can perform in these roles in his sleep, and that appears to be what Altman and Armstrong were relying on. Although not as painfully bad as KICKING AND SCREAMING, the writing in SEMI-PRO leaves little to be desired. A certain nostalgia for the 70’s may be warranted, but many of the jokes are derived from lame references and outlandish fashions. Additional lazy scripting comes in the form of an underdeveloped and unnecessary love story between mid-season Tropic acquisition Monix, played by Woody Harrelson, and his ex-girlfriend played by Maura Tierney. SEMI-PRO doesn’t even live up to its title, attempting amateurish jokes which often miss the mark.Grade: C-
No comments:
Post a Comment