Semi-Pro= Semi-Good (I apologize for that)

It is quite possible that a review of Semi-Pro is completely superfluous. If you have seen any of the movies that make up the centerpiece of Will Ferrell’s canon (as opposed to when he branches out in movies like Melinda and Melinda, Stranger Than Fiction or even Elf) you know what you are getting yourself into. If you haven’t seen Anchorman, Talladega Nights, Blades of Glory etc. it is most certainly because you are turned off by Farrell’s particular brand of comedy and do not intend to embrace it now. That being said, here are some observations about Semi-Pro that enthusiasts and detractors can both enjoy.

Will Ferrell and his compatriots have almost become a set of modern day Marx Brothers. Think about it: The actors play roughly the same character in each film (Ferrell’s overconfident buffoon carries the films in the same way Groucho’s over confident wiseacre did). The plot is little more than a backdrop for the bits and jokes (on this note I would say Ferrell and company do a slightly better job than the Marx Bros., I challenge anyone to remember the actual plot of any of their pictures). The humor is identical from movie to movie (Chico always got to play a hilarious piano solo; Jackie Moon’s battle with a bear in Semi-Pro is just like Ricky Bobby’s tussle with a cougar in Talladega Nights). Now there are classic Marx Brothers titles (Animal Crackers, Duck Soup and Horse Feathers being great examples) and there are those that are not nearly as memorable (The Big Store?). When all is said and done, the same will be true of the films of Will Farrell et al. It seems clear that Semi-Pro will not be on the list of films that endures.

Semi-Pro (the story of the Flint Tropics, a rag tag ABA team in the 1970s) just comes off as half-baked. For starters, it is comedy about basketball where the basketball sequences are not funny. Then there is a romance between Woody Harrelson and Maura Tierney that we expected to invest in for very little pay off. The vast majority of the humor comes from the lines and, while there are some great ones (a few of the ad libs come from a delightfully bizarre corner of Farrell’s brain), they are not enough to support a comedy where nothing funny actually happens on screen.

Being a movie about basketball in Detroit, there are more African-American roles in Semi-Pro than any previous Will Ferrell movie. It is a bit disconcerting that the three Black actors (Andre Benjamin, Jay Phillips, and DeRay Davis) who play Flint Tropics aren’t given much comedic material to work with. For the most part, these guys are used for reaction shots to the shenanigans of the white characters. It is sad that the frat boy humor isn’t universal enough to employ the talents of performers of color. When actors in the same movie can’t partake in the same type of humor because of their race. It shows how unnecessarily segregated the world of comedy is.

If you like this type of fare, you will laugh but not as much as you have in the past. If you aren’t on the bandwagon yet, this will not be the film that grabs hold of you so skip it. There simply wasn’t quite enough material for it to be a major motion picture. But have no fear, for playing before Semi-Pro is the trailer for Step Brothers, the next Will Ferrell movie where he plays an overconfident boob who ends up sharing bunk beds with John C. Reilly. Lets hope this more like Duck Soup and less like The Big Store.