Semi-Pro (2008)

 

It's not a good thing when you can count the number of times a movie made you laugh. The grand total for "Semi-Pro" was three. Three laughs. And even though I watched it less than twenty-four hours ago, I don't even remember what those three things were.

Will Ferrell plays Jackie Moon, a '70s disco musician who uses the wealth from his lone hit song to buy an ABA team. The team is more of a gimmick than a group of athletes, focusing more on entertaining the crowd than actually playing the game.

What really lacked was the script. This movie wasn't written by Ferrell, and maybe that was the reason all of the jokes felt like a bad impression of a Will Ferrell script. The humor also should have come from the absurd promotions. Jumping cheerleaders on roller-skates, fighting a bear, porn-stars in the locker room; these are all things that they apparently thought would be comedic gold, but all just felt forced and boring.

I try to always find some glimmer of hope in a movie, but in this case, I'm having trouble doing so. I guess the three laughs count for something.

 

On the Celluloid Hero scale, "Semi-Pro" gets a 1 out of 10.

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[Each week, Varacchi explores cinema from his own perspective. From indie to foreign to mainstream, he'll watch it all. Suggestions and recommendations are welcome, leave a comment below. CLICK HERE for the Celluloid Hero archives]

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