One of Will Ferrell’s worst performers at the box office (uncommon for this kind of Ferrell film) which was also critically slammed (not uncommon for his films), Semi-Pro hopes for some renewed life on DVD, being released in a standard disc and in this two-disc special edition.

Semi-Pro is about Jackie Moon (Will Ferrell), the owner/coach/player of the Flint Michigan Tropics during the last days of the American Basketball Association in the 1970s.  The ABA is being dismantled and some of the teams will be transitioning into the NBA.  The top four teams from this last year of the league will be the ones to go into the NBA.  The problem the Tropics face is that they are always awful so there isn’t much of a chance of them getting a top four seed and getting into the NBA.

Jackie, who ended up buying the Tropics a while back with all of his money that he made from his one-hit wonder R&B song “Let’s Get Sexy”, is determined not to lose his team.  In order for that to happen he needs his team to start winning and he needs people to show up to the games.  So he does what he does best, which is coming up with interesting promotions like him wrestling a bear, jumping over the ball girls on roller skates, or giving away cash and corn dogs if certain things happen in the game (only to try and renege on the deals if it really does happen).  Surprisingly, he gets people to show up, but the team still stinks.

The final move is when Jackie brings in an ex-NBA player named Ed Monix (Woody Harrelson) to whip the team into shape and get them to start playing like a real team, especially since their star player Clarence Black (Andre Benjamin) is as selfish as they come (and also keeps trying on new names every week like “Coffee” Black).  But is Monix coming on board too late for the Tropics to make a run at fourth place?          

CRITIQUE

Will Ferrell’s shtick can be very funny in the right circumstances (Old School, Elf, Talladega Nights, and Anchorman come to mind) but in many circumstances it can be downright painful to sit through (see The Producers, Wedding Crashers, Bewitched, Kicking & Screaming, and countless SNL skits).  It all depends on the strength of the material (the script which is the most important, the costars, the director, etc.)

Well, Semi-Pro is by far the worst material he’s had to work with and it is no surprise then that it is his worst film (which is really saying something).  Semi-Pro seems like has no script as there is zero character development and as thin of a story as you can get.  So the whole film is just Ferrell trying to improvise and make something funny that is just flat-out not.  It’s painful to sit through and I’d recommend it only to my worst enemies.

The sad thing about the film is that this is a solid cast who would be game for anything.  Ferrell and most actor-comedians are truly only as good as the material and crew that they are working with.  There are very limited exceptions to this (Jim Carrey in his comedy heyday could make horrible material funny but not many others).  So if the script was hilarious here, then the film would have been off-the-charts funny with Ferrell and Harrelson (who is great in comedies and has proven himself in this exact same genre) leading the way.

Furthermore, Andre Benjamin is also proving to be a good actor and is also wasted here.  Maura Tierney is criminally ignored and wasted here in a weird, unnecessary subplot that goes nowhere.  Heck, even the newly resurrected Jackie Earl Haley shows up and is completely wasted (the character he plays should have been hilarious but they give him nothing funny to work with).  The only actor that comes across funny here is ex-Daily Show funnyman Rob Corddry who has the only funny bit in the whole film.

The worst parts of the film (again) are that there is absolutely no story, no character development and the dialogue bits that are obviously not improvised are completely unfunny.  So I lay the blame directly on the screenwriter Scott Armstrong and then the director Kent Alterman for not realizing how unfunny all of this is.  Alterman seems to be so concerned with the look of the old ABA and making sure every last detail is perfect that he ignores everything else about the film.  The only positive in the film is that the look of the 70s and the old ABA is perfect.  But, really, who cares?  The point was to have a hilarious comedy about basketball and this just isn’t it (it was called White Men Can’t Jump).

Moreover, a big mistake made is not concentrating on game action and finding comedy within the game like White Men Can’t Jump did perfectly.  I could go on and on about all of the mistakes made and why this and that is so unfunny, but I just can’t do it, it’s not worth it.  Point is, skip this film at all costs because there is nothing at all funny about any of it (and don’t blame the cast as they were all game, it was horrible writing and horrible directing).   

THE VIDEO

The transfer (2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen) looks adequate, the colors are nice and vivid but I noticed a little over-saturation (which is probably purposeful) which causes some slight hazy sections.

THE AUDIO

Rambo is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 EX Surround Sound and the presentation is terrific as the subwoofers get a nice workout with all the basketball action.  The dialogue and soundtrack come through crystal clear.

THE EXTRAS

There are a ton of extras included in this two disc set (for the one or two fans of the film that the studio is really doing a favor for!).  Actually, most of the extras are quite good and much more entertaining and funny then the actual film so if you end up renting or buying this two disc set just watch the extras and skip the film.  Disc one includes both the original theatrical cut and the unrated “Let’s Get Sweaty” edition.  The unrated seems to only have added a couple topless scenes, everything else was the same.

The Deleted Scenes and Improv scenes are mostly a glimpse at the strain Ferrell went into to try and pull laughs out of this thing (it’s really interesting to see how hard he tried and all the different takes on just one scene he did to try and get a laugh).  There are actually a few funny scenes here which definitely should have been in the film since there were basically no funny scenes in the entirety of the film.

There are a ton of featurettes that get into a bunch of different areas of the film.  The first is A Short History of the ABA which is a brief look at the old ABA league which was a faster, looser league than the NBA at the time and was the league that introduced the 3-point shot, the dunk, alley-oop and Dr. J.  There are interviews with a bunch of ex-ABA players who helped consult on the film.

Re-creating the American Basketball League is basically an extension of the history and looks at how the filmmakers recreated the league for the movie.  The director was extremely exacting about getting all the details right and they really did a great job in that arena.

The next is 4 Days in Flint which is a behind-the-scenes look at the actual shoot that took place in Michigan.

“Love Me Sexy” The Story Behind the One Hit Wonder looks at how they came up with the song which Ferrell just improved most of in a read through.  The song is actually kind of catchy and really does sound like a 70s R&B jam.

The Man Behind Semi-Pro looks at the director and talks about why he wanted the film made, the approach he took, etc..  There are interviews with most of the cast and crew (Harrelson is conspicuously missing from all of these).

Bill Walton Visits the Set is as self-explanatory as it gets.

Then they have included a full length Music Video of “Love Me Sexy” which is not very funny visually but the song itself has some funny parts.

The last extra is Flint Tropics Hot Talk with Dick Pepperfield and is the funniest of the extras.  It is just a couple one-minute clips of Jackie Moon being interviewed by fake sportscaster Dick Pepperfield and they are very funny.  That’s about as far as this concept should have ever gone; just a couple snippets of the character of Jackie Moon on SNL or in that Budweiser commercial.  

FINAL THOUGHTS

Semi-Pro is the worst film of Will Ferrell’s career.  The film relies solely on improvisation from Ferrell and the rest of the cast without giving them an interesting story, providing any character development or subplots, and giving none of them any funny lines at all from the get-go.  It’s a disaster and should be skipped at all costs.