Best movie of this year hands down!

To me, this movie is perfection.

Powerful

How sad is this?

I can't believe no one here has made a comparison between this and the 1977 movie Slap Shot staring Paul Newman. Anyway I first watched this movie as a kid and loved it for the violence, the weird humor, and what I though was an original story. However; Semi Pro is not original in the slightest it stole everything from a little movie from the 70's called Slap Shot. Semi Pro like Slap Shot has plot which features an underdog team who are going to be disbanded at the end of the season because of their losing streak and poor track record who then decide to start improving their game but also start fights between their rival teams which makes no sense because they were playing basketball not a sport known for it's overly violent behavior between rival players. But i digress, and besides when I first watched it I knew almost nothing about professional basketball. Anyway they get a new player or players and he or they help the team drastically improve their game and consequently also get more fans. Things start to look up for protagonists but then then the coach takes a visit to the team's owner or whatever and finds they team will be disbanded regardless of if they win or not. Then as the cards seem to tipped against them, but things turn around they win the game get the trophy and become a new team. Which is the exact same plot as Slap Shot with some minor differences. Now Semi-Pro may try to add in more humor like fighting a grizzly bear or the team dressing up as fruity sea creatures and other failed attempts at humor. While Slap Shot on the other is a little more subtle with its humor though you'd be hard pressed to call anything in slap shot subtle, though it is when you examine it and it produces some honestly funny moments where most people find themselves laughing and not just spaced out stoners and nimrods who find Dane Cook and that puppet guy funny. In conclusion this movie fooled me as kid, but don't let it fool you it's a cheap ripoff of another infinitely better movie made to make money.

The American Basketball Association is on the verge of collapse, and when a former NBA benchwarmer returns to his hometown of Flint, MI, to whip his former team into shape for the playoffs, redemption is just a free throw away in this period sports comedy starring Will Ferrell and Woody Harrelson. Penned by Old School scribe Scot Armstrong, Semi-Pro tells the tale of a 1970s-era basketball player who doesn't have much luck in the NBA, but vows to leave his mark on the sport by coaching the Flint Tropics. When the upstart ABA league agrees to be absorbed by the NBA, only four teams will be allowed in. Jackie Moon (Ferrell) must orchestrate a successful season both on the court, and financially off the court with the help of many odd promotional events, in order to remain in the sport he loves.

This movie is a pretty good venture for Will Ferrell and his cast of well- known actors playing somewhat comedic roles. The main element of comedy in the movie is the stupidity of Ferrell's character, Jackie Moon, an independent basketball team owner/coach and former music one-hit-wonder with his song "Love Me Sexy." His sports-themed movies are pretty much all the same, and this being the fourth sports movie he's done, it didn't really add anything to what has been done in his past movies. I think the funniest part in the movie was when he thought it would be a good idea for his team to wear eye shadow to freak out the other team and the craziness that ensues. For the most part, I liked the movie, but if it were in my DVD collection, I'd probably overlook it most of the time. The concepts are funny on their own, but Ferrell ends up playing a very needy, confused individual that gets annoying after awhile.

For a few minutes into it, I thought it was going to be at least better than "Blades of Glory" but I was wrong. This was just stupid without the humor in it, it seems to try overly hard in order to be funny...But it just isn't. Will Ferrell just acts like a obnoxious idiot that is cocky, in another words it's the same acting he played in many other roles in his past. His past movies were okay, but it seems like they aren't trying any more and just put Will Ferrell in a sports movie thinking he is going to carry the film, but it just doesn't work. And like many of his other roles he does random stuff to be funny, except this time they over do it a lot. First half was okay and than it's just plain boring. Rental at best.4.3/10