Mix of comedians entertaining
While someone might have reservations about the comedic quality of Semi-Pro starring Will Ferrell, it proves to be a very entertaining cinematic delight.
Will Ferrell plays Jackie Moon, the owner, coach and power forward of the Flint Michigan Tropics. The Tropics are an American Basketball Association team that is being put out of business by the NBA merger. Moon, who is an owner first and foremost, wants his team to be in the NBA and convinces the commissioner to let the four best teams join the NBA instead of the four teams with the biggest fan base.
When Moon is forced to hand over the coaching of the team to NBA veteran and newly acquired player Woody Harrelson, the team starts to come together. In order to win, they have to play the game instead of their usual passing it to Clarence “Coffee” Black, played by André Benjamin and letting him score the points.
Will Ferrell is the bulk of the humor in this movie. Some situations are predictable, but are still very funny, as the movie has many supporting comedians including Tim Meadows, Andy Richter, Matt Walsh, Rob Corddry, Will Arnett and David Koechner. This wide range of actors made for a diverse number of comedic styles.
Some of the funnier moments in this movie are a great throwback to the outfits of the seventies, including a ridiculous crunch-time camera angle of Will Ferrell shooting free throws granny-style in short-shorts. The lingo of the seventies was also at the end of many jokes, including arguably the best scene in the movie. It was also amusing to see Moon try to pull in a bigger fan base by creating and performing a halftime show because his business is failing.
Overall, the variety of different actors who balanced out Will Ferrell made this film enjoyable and not as over the top as his last movie, Talladega Nights.
Good acting and a humorous script made the movie funny and something I would recommend to others. However, some situational predictability and Will Ferrell’s tantrums made for a few less-than-funny scenes and made it probably not worth spending the money to view it in theatres.
Contact Campus Press Staff Writer Andrew Nute at Nute@colorado.edu.
