CarrieMiller's Movie Review of Semi-Pro

What a Waste of Will
CarrieMiller - wrote on 08/04/08

I was so excited to watch the new Will Ferrell movie, Semi-Pro but was just disappointed. This movie has a weak plot, poor jokes with excessive swearing and violence.

Will Ferrell does his best to inject humor into the script but his efforts are lost due to poor direction by Kent Alterman. His facial expressions, used so well in other movies such as Elf and Blades of Glory, hold the key to his humor but the audience never really get to see them close up as the camera sweeps out to show the cheap looking set and other actors.

The real opportunities for laughter come from the setting of the film in the 1970s. There are brief lines poking fun at the era such as the explanation of fondue and the huge hair styles sported by members of the cast. These however are not used to their full potential and director Kent Alterman instead chooses to focus on the excessive and unnecessary swearing in the script for the humor. It is not funny.

The love interest played by former ER actress Maura Tierney has no characterization and the audience really couldn't care less if she gets together with the character played by Woody Harrelson because we don't relate to her, or him for that matter.

It seems to me that this movie can't decide what it wants to do. It starts as a typical Will Ferrell movie with an over exaggerated opening, switches to a Tarrantino style film with a ridiculous and irrelievent Russian roulette scene, and then throws in the basketball plot to become a sport/underdog movie.

None of the cast including Andre Benjamin or Woody Harrelson ever really get the chance to use their characterization abilities and instead present 2D personas, quickly loosing the audiences interest.

This film goes to show that unless comic actors such as Will Ferrell and Andre Benjamin are really given a chance to develop their characters and have a script with the flexibility to include their acting styles, the film is doomed to fail. I am afraid that Semi-Pro falls into this category.