[Brett_M]

Caught this last night at a sneak preview. It's about what you'd expect. Some funny stuff separated by a lot of Ferrell doing Ferrell (a lot of yelling, crude humor and "jokes" puncuated by foul language).

The good -- opening credits are laugh out loud funny. Some cool basketball scenes, especially during the climax. Jackie Earl Haley has a great extended cameo as a fan. There are a lot of familiar faces, too.

The bad -- a lot of long scenes that go nowhere + the aforementioned Ferrell "humor."

If you like Will Ferrell, you'll like the flick. If your not a fan, you'll chuckle at a few spots.

By the way, there were less than 10 exterior shots of the city of Flint.

As a Ferrell film, it's a ***.5/*****.

As a film, it's a **/*****.

[Dennis Castro]

Saw this last night.

As much of a Farrel fan as I am this was just okay at best. The concept was funny but it seems like it was bunch of good ideas that were not entirely fleshed out. Most of the gages or jokes just couldn't seem to bring it home.

Not bad but not great. I would have to say possibly my least favorite of his films.

Whaddya gonna do?

No comedian/actor no matter how great they are hits a home run every time. This was was more of a double maybe a double stretched into a triple.

[Patrick Sun]

Toss in a 10 minute SNL skit idea about ABA teams fighting to be amongst the 4 ABA teams to merge with the NBA in 1976, mix in 2 truly boring subplots, a bear fight, lots of r-rated language, a yet-another-manic performance by Will Ferrell, and stretch it out to 90 minutes, you've got the poor recipe for "Semi-Pro". Granted it doesn't sound like a good idea for a film there are a few laughs in the 1st act of the film, but not enough to recommend it.

I give it 1.75 stars, or a grade of C-.

[Robert Crawford]

This thread is now the Official Review Thread for "Semi-Pro". Please post all HTF member reviews in this thread. Any plot details that could negatively affect another's viewing pleasure should have spoilers attached to those comments.

Any other comments, links to other reviews, or discussion items will be deleted from this thread without warning!

If you need to discuss those type of issues then I have designated an Official Discussion Thread.



Crawdaddy

[MatthewA]

I saw this last night. I kept my expectations low and they were not met.

My main problems with the film are:

—The funny bits are too few and far between
—The film doesn't even know what the main crux of the story is. Is it about Jackie Moon trying to save the team or is it about Monix trying to rebuild his life?

I say it's a missed opportunity from a cast who can do better. The trailer for "Step Brothers" looks better. Heck, I laughed harder at the trailer for "Superhero Movie," which I now know will NOT be from the makers of the godawful "(insert genre here) Movie" and "Meet the Spartans".

[Doug Schiller]

That was my main problem with the movie. I knew almost nothing about Jackie Moon the character.
I don't think you even saw his house or apartment.
Why did he care? If he lost the team, what would he do?
Did he have money problems? Was he super rich? What is the history with his friends?
Nothing, they basically put Woody in the film for character stuff.
Great performances from everyone, they all tried but I just didn't know why I should care.

The bad news, the trailer they showed before the movie, Step Brother with Ferrell and John C Reilly, looked worse. But, with those two, that should be impossible.

[JeremyR]

This movie fell way behind for me for a Ferrell movie. I'm not sure if his act is just getting old, or if it just wasn't very good. I think it's a combination of both, because "Blades of Glory" was a pretty far fall from how entertaining Talladega Nights was. I have contended that Ferrell was the closest thing we had to a true physical comedian that even approached how great Jerry Lewis is, but now I'm not so sure because Lewis' act never grew old for me. Ferrell's is. Perhaps I'm just not as big of a fan of his as I once thought.