The Hawk

Issue date: 3/12/08 Section: Entertainment

Will Ferrell plays his token macho funny guy in "Semi-Pro."

There are certain things that you can expect every time you see a Will Ferrell movie: Ferrell crying, Ferrell shirtless, Ferrell fighting a bear, and Ferrell playing a mental midget flying into a fit of rage.

This predictable formula has led to some comedy hits and near-misses, but the premise is running pretty thin. "Semi-Pro," the latest offering from the writer of "Old School," is an uninspired vehicle that delivers, well, Ferrell crying, shirtless, bear fighting, and throwing a tantrum.

Ferrell plays Jackie Moon, a lounge singer who uses the earnings from his hit single "Love Me Sexy" to purchase the Flint Michigan Tropics, a team in the now-defunct American Basketball Association (ABA).

He uses the opportunity to become a player and coach, and not much of either.

Get it? He's incompetent. See, it's funny, because he's an athlete who isn't all that athletic.

The ABA is presented as an out-of-control group of ragtag misfits prone to fighting and adverse to playing defense. When the NBA reaches out to incorporate four teams into their league, it's a race to finish fourth for Moon and the Tropics in the standings and the stands.

Moon reaches out to Monix (Woody Harrelson), a former NBA point guard to salvage the season. Monix is, of course, a washed up veteran who whips the team into shape and occasionally reflects on how his life could have been different if only he had done some things differently.

Meanwhile, Andre Benjamin (Andre 3000 of Outkast) plays Clarence "Coffee" Black, a selfish player who needs the wisdom of a veteran like Manix to make him realize that the team should come before individual statistics.

After that, the commandment of sports movies applies: An audience shall not be expected to remember more than three athletes on any fictional team.

So the rest of the players on the Tropics are filled in with stock characters (like an Eastern European center-he can't speak English, folks!)

The highlights of the movie-and to be sure, they are few and far between-are delivered by the Tropics broadcast team played by Will Arnett and Andrew Daly. The ubiquitous Andy Richter has a forgettable role as a locker room attendant.

"Semi-Pro" seems at best like a rushed project, and at worst unoriginal. The problem isn't that Will Ferrell is no longer funny-he is, and the videos that he puts on the Web routinely prove that-but rather that we've seen this all before.

Even his role as an athlete is well-worn territory, with roles in "Talladega Nights," "Blades of Glory," and "Kicking and Screaming."

Perhaps if "Semi-Pro" had been the first of these dumb-as-a-jock films, it would register much better with audiences. But on the heels of "Stranger Than Fiction," Ferrell has reverted to his stock material to prepare himself for "Old School Dos."

And strangely, a man-child boxing a grizzly in his underwear just isn't as funny the fifth or ninth time around.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools