2008 Woodie Awards
Ferrell airballs in 'Semi-pro'
Review
Ben Marxer
Issue date: 3/5/08 Section: Arts & Entertainment
Low-brow comedies will always make a fair showing in the box office. Despite their frequent repetition in cinema, shots to the nuts, the sexual practices of the commercially unattractive and the accidental ingestion of semen always seem to go over big to the teenage and twenty something audiences of the country. Hell, Chaucer was doing fart jokes back in the 14th century and he's in "Norton's Anthology of British Literature." And in the cinema doldrums between the Oscars and the summer blockbusters, the sports spoof "Semi-Pro" makes it to number one.
Will Ferrell plays Jackie Moon, a 70's pop singer-turned-minor-league-basketball-team-owner-turned-player/coach of the Flint Michigan Tropics. With the league facing financial crisis due to low fan turnout, a merger is struck with the NBA, who will absorb the smaller league but keep only the four best teams. To protect his team from disbandment, Moon must rally his ragtag squad of quirky troublemakers into a championship team.
Wait, what's that? The ragtag-team-of-misfits-with-funny-personality-types-who-pull-together-in-the-end storyline doesn't do it for you anymore? Did "The Replacements" kill it for you, or was it "Major League 3?"
Well did we mention that the movie takes place in the 70's? Weren't things weird in the 70's? People dressed funny and had funny hair and said things like "Jive turkey" and made strange prophetic comments about stuff that becomes relevant in our time. What's that, you weren't even born in the 70's? That's all right, trust us, it's funny. It's like "The Wedding Singer" only ten years earlier (and ten years funnier). Or wait, remember "Starsky and Hutch," how Vince Vaughn had a cheesy mustache and Ben Stiller had a 'fro? It's just like that. Hilarious.
Despite the Right Guard endorsements, the featured role in the movie trailers, and the central place in the movie posters, Will Ferrell is not the central figure in this film. The protagonist instead is Woody Harrelson's character Ed Monix. Harrelson made his comedy bones starring in the 1996 film "Kingpin," another sports spoof. Harrelson was brilliant in the memorable roll of the hook-handed Roy Munson, so this roll should have been a breeze.
Will Ferrell plays Jackie Moon, a 70's pop singer-turned-minor-league-basketball-team-owner-turned-player/coach of the Flint Michigan Tropics. With the league facing financial crisis due to low fan turnout, a merger is struck with the NBA, who will absorb the smaller league but keep only the four best teams. To protect his team from disbandment, Moon must rally his ragtag squad of quirky troublemakers into a championship team.
Wait, what's that? The ragtag-team-of-misfits-with-funny-personality-types-who-pull-together-in-the-end storyline doesn't do it for you anymore? Did "The Replacements" kill it for you, or was it "Major League 3?"
Well did we mention that the movie takes place in the 70's? Weren't things weird in the 70's? People dressed funny and had funny hair and said things like "Jive turkey" and made strange prophetic comments about stuff that becomes relevant in our time. What's that, you weren't even born in the 70's? That's all right, trust us, it's funny. It's like "The Wedding Singer" only ten years earlier (and ten years funnier). Or wait, remember "Starsky and Hutch," how Vince Vaughn had a cheesy mustache and Ben Stiller had a 'fro? It's just like that. Hilarious.
Despite the Right Guard endorsements, the featured role in the movie trailers, and the central place in the movie posters, Will Ferrell is not the central figure in this film. The protagonist instead is Woody Harrelson's character Ed Monix. Harrelson made his comedy bones starring in the 1996 film "Kingpin," another sports spoof. Harrelson was brilliant in the memorable roll of the hook-handed Roy Munson, so this roll should have been a breeze.
Be the first to comment on this story