Following Blades of Glory, Kicking & Screaming and Talladega Nights, Semi Pro is yet another SCV – that's sports-comedy-vehicle - for Will Ferrell.
Our Afro-haired funnyman plays Jackie Moon, a 1970s one-hit wonder singer who parlayed his fame and fortune into the Flint Michigan Tropics basketball team.
When the film opens, his vanity squad are losing badly in the second-string competition but hoping to get into the big time of the NBA. What they'll need is a washed-up champion, in the shape of Woody Harrelson -- and a whole lot of zany promotional activity.
A year ago, I said Will Ferrell comedies are like guilty fast-food pleasures -- but Semi Pro is made up of sloppy leftovers. There's the 1970s period, a la Anchorman, the underdog sports team thing from Dodgeball and the crazy costumes of Blades Of Glory. But this bubble and squeak is all blandness no bite, and except for one inspired Russian roulette sequence, it's a terrifically unfunny and predictable 90 minutes.
Will Ferrell's previous hits have felt improvised and anarchic within their cookie cutter dimensions. Yet everything here – from bear wrestling to the on-court tussles – smacks of exactly the same sort of desperation in Jackie's stunts.
A talented cast that includes Harrelson, Andre Benjamin, Will Arnett and Maura Tierney has nothing to chew on, let alone spit out comically. And in reheating this dish, the filmmakers forgot a crucial ingredient because there's no comic nemesis to root against – and bad guys were a highlight of Blades, Dodgeball and Talledega Nights.
But enough with the food metaphors – Semi Pro lends itself best to basketball lingo. Think of this is as an amateur, always shooting never scoring. Not even a two-pointer…
Semi Pro dribbles its way to one and half stars and is now in cinemas.
