Semi-Pro (2008)
NETFLIX SYNOPSIS: Will Ferrell stars as Jackie Moon, owner and coach of the Flint Michigan Tropics — the team with the worst record in the renegade American Basketball Association. With the franchise on the brink of collapse, can Jackie’s squad rebound to salvation in the National Basketball Association? Director Kent Alterman’s entertaining comedy (set in 1976) also stars Woody Harrelson, Maura Tierney, André Benjamin and Andy Richter.
REVIEW: Another year, another dim-witted, half-baked comedy from Will Ferrell. 2008 finds us watching Will’s send-up of the ABA, a basketball league that encountered minor success in the late 1970s before being gobbled up by the NBA. Will plays, uh, himself, as usual, this time as an owner/coach/player of an ABA franchise in Flint Michigan, who will find his team contracted as the ABA shuts down for good. Unfortunately, unlike last year’s surprisingly amusing Blades of Glory, this is one of those “unfunny” Ferrell flicks where you can safely predict every punch line before it flies out of his piehole. My favorite part was a brief early cameo by old ABA players George “Iceman” Gervin and Artis “A-Train” Gilmore. If only the rest of the film had such spirit.
2.5 stars
HAWK
