I am assuming that a majority of the readers out there are rooting for their respective teams during March Madness. Me personally, I just like watching movies about basketball. So if Ken Burns could direct and broadcast the March Madness in a documentary form, I would watch the hell out of that. I realize I am not in the norm with my general “meh” attitude towards madness of sports, so I will suffice with this funny movie this evening.
The American Basketball Association is on the verge of collapse, and when a former NBA benchwarmer returns to his hometown of Flint, MI, to whip his former team into shape for the playoffs, redemption is just a free throw away in this period sports comedy starring Will Ferrell and Woody Harrelson. Penned by Old School scribe Scot Armstrong, Semi-Pro tells the tale of a 1970s-era basketball player who doesn’t have much luck in the NBA, but vows to leave his mark on the sport by coaching the Flint Tropics. When the upstart ABA league agrees to be absorbed by the NBA, only four teams will be allowed in. Jackie Moon (Ferrell) must orchestrate a successful season both on the court, and financially off the court with the help of many odd promotional events, in order to remain in the sport he loves. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Alright, I am sure everyone is pretty much tired of the whole Will Ferrell playing a sports figure who is trying to make some sort of effort or comeback or whatever. It does get a little tiring when you see him do the same thing again and again, but I will at least hand it to Semi-Pro for backing Ferrell with some great secondary cast members. The biting, profanity laced yelling is thrown at you at full force with some rather humorous satire topics that such as the whole Flint, Michigan being the greatest place in the US. I got a morbid chuckle at that seeing as how Flint is currently situated as a depression era city since the auto makers have fled that place. There are a lot of those gags and references thrown in the movie that I enjoyed, especially when given by the secondary characters of Woody Harrelson and Will Arnett.
The secondary characters are really the highlight for me and Ferrell does a great job of getting his friends and fellow comedians into his movies. Their roles might be bit parts, but I enjoy seeing Will Arnett play a surly sportscaster, watching others like Andy Richter, Matt Walsh and Andrew Daly all getting some screen time and just owning their characters. They prop up some of the recycled jokes and gags that you have seen in previous Ferrell movies, but Ferrell himself is still sharp and funny as can be. I mean, what’s not to like about a Ferrell movie? Except you should ignore the turkey movies like Land of the Lost and The Campaign.
In the pantheon of basketball movies, this isn’t the best, but it does have its wonderful moments of humor with Ferrell playing up his Jackie Moon status as a terrible basketball player. Harrelson brings a little more seriousness to the role of the sort of washed up veteran and balances out the ridiculousness of Moon’s character. For me though, it’s the side players of the film that bring a lot of the laughs as they all get their own little personality that shines from time to time. So if you want a basketball movie to watch this March Madness, Semi-Pro wouldn’t hurt at all.
