Film Review: Semi-Pro
The heavily promoted and Old Spice affiliated film Semi-Pro stars Will Ferrell as a basketball owner/player. Unfortunately, the unfunny trailers exactly depict the lack of laughs in the movie. You can read the rest of this review if you want, but I have to warn you now to not see this complete failure.
I imagine the pitch meeting went something like this:
Producer: Ok, what have you got?
Director: Well, I was hoping we would be able to obtain Will Ferrell for the leading role.
Producer: Let’s say that I got you Ferrell, what would he be doing in this movie?
Director: You might want to sit down for this. We are going to take Will Ferrell…and have him play basketball.
Producer: Wow. Wow. Did you say….
Director: Yeah. He is going to be playing basketball.
Producer: Oh my goodness that is absolutely genius. The kids love basketball! Don’t tell me he is going to play basketball and use foul language?
Director: Oh yes. And what if I told you that in addition to plenty of swearing, we are going to have him play the same character he has used in almost every one of his movies?
Producer: Take my money and make this movie.
Just like everything you just read, Semi-Pro is not funny and a complete waste of your time. I found myself sitting in the theater arms folded and face blank. I was blown away at the complete absence of any effort to make anything funny. It was as if the actors thought that people would laugh based on their pedigree alone (I am sure some will). Who is that guy screaming absurd lines? Oh, it is Will Ferrell! That is hilarious!
Ferrell’s best acting role is definitely in Stranger than Fiction, but since it is not a typical comedic Ferrell movie I will not discuss it any further. Among his comedy classics like A Night at the Roxbury, Old School, Anchorman, and even his small role in Wedding Crashers, Ferrell has brought a high level of hilarity. Unfortunately in Semi-Pro he is not even trying. I just hope that this is one misstep, and not a sign of things to come. If this trend continues Ferrell will no longer be able to draw numbers based on his name alone.
Please save yourself. Never see this movie. Not in theaters, not on DVD, not when it is played back-to-back-to-back on TBS in two years. Never. You may never know what my advice spared you from, and that is a very good thing.
1/10
Images were obtained from Rotten Tomatoes
March 9th, 2008 | 11:42 pm
thanks for the review. I figured as much from the trailers but you just confirmed it. I myself am a W.F. fan but I agree that his character is getting pretty pigeon-holed, and the fact that he did this in affiliation with old spice just made it even more “commercialized” and “fake” to me.
Thanks for the heads up, I’ll wait for the download ;) love the producer/director bit, probably cause its spot on!
March 10th, 2008 | 6:41 am
I’ll put him on Afro Match.
March 11th, 2008 | 12:18 am
Terrible movie. Horrible. The one plus side of this movie is that Mark will put him on Afro Match.
March 11th, 2008 | 10:18 am
I guess that I won’t be seeing this movie.
March 11th, 2008 | 3:10 pm
For those who do not know, Afro Match is a reference to the hilarious movie Undercover Brother.
March 11th, 2008 | 8:11 pm
i know what it’s from.
March 12th, 2008 | 11:28 am
I watched this movie, and though I love some of the movies you rip and hate some of the movies you love, I agree on this. This movie is an absolute failure. The writing was horrific. I watched this movie as a download of a camera in theatre, which probably made my experience worse.
airxxi.com rating 2.5/10