Will Ferrell's Semi Pro Reeks Like '70s After Shave

Will Ferrell’s appreciation of sports, if for nothing else as a premise to his most recent films, has taken the actor through stints as a race car driver, figure skater and basketball player. With his frame – husyk, perhaps – it isn’t hard to imagine the comedian possessing some athletic ability. But even if he had none, Ferrell’s done a pretty good job manipulating his physicality to better fit each of these disparate roles. And while Semi Pro met with mixed reviews upon its release, pretty much everything about the film comes off better than Blades of Glory – well, apart from the costumes at least.

Utilizing another preposterous premise, movies/reviews/2008-02-28-semi-pro_N.htm">Ferrell is Jackie Moon, a one time singer and current owner, coach and starter for the Flint, Michigan Tropics. The team, one of the lesser in quality in its league, isn’t able to draw a large crowd and as the film begins, finds itself in peril – the looming merger between the ABA and the NBA appears to have left the team without a league. And while that seems like a pretty cut and dry scenario, a host of Ferrell’s meddling in the situation grants the Tropics a chance to make the move to the NBA if they finish with one of the four best records.

Yeah, it’s another underdog sports team story with the requisite trappings of the genre – a selfish star (Andre 3000 from Outkast) and a hardened (co) coach in the form of Woody Harrelson’s Ed Monix. And while Harrelson might seem out of place, his character here works to better affect than the trainer role that Craig T. Nelson inhabits in Blades of Glory. Unlike that movie, the gags in Semi Pro seem less memorable, though. No one on the Tropics becomes ensnared in some confusing gender roles, but there are still a number of funny moments.

The reappearance of Monix in Flint is partially due to the fact that his former flame, played by Maura Tierney is a resident. Her character’s boyfriend – a wig wearing Rob Corddry – is a Monix fan that, for whatever reason, can’t dislike the washed up ball player no matter the indiscretion. Even when Monix is hilt deep in Tierney’s character, the boyfriend just looks on in fan boy appreciation.

Amidst the season and the eventual realization that the Tropics aren’t going to be making the jump to the NBA, Andre 3000’s character gets traded to a franchise that will be absorbed come the following season. And while this player’s seeming abandonment of the Tropics might come off poorly in the mind of viewers, it’s predicated on the finale and its moral.

In addition to the misplaced sexual hi-jinks and that moralizing, the film’s setting – presumably ’76, the year of the two basketball leagues actual merger – provides for the lion’s share of the guffaws here. With Ferrell’s character entrenched in a smarmy singer’s mindset, Semi Pro seems like a bizarre “Behind the Music” parody at times. But the recent onslaught of his films each possess that feel. And while some work more easily than others, this effort should sate most comedic movie fans.