Monday, March 26, 2012

Semi-Pro (2008)

One of my favorite comedy’s!  It’s about basketball, my sport, a hilarious overall cast and one of Will Ferrell’s funniest performances.  The star character Jackie Moon (Will Ferrell) is so ridiculous it’s insane!  He is an owner, coach and starting power forward for the Flint Tropics.  He made a fortune with a super funny song called, “Love Me Sexy”.  This movie is not to be taken seriously as with any comedy.  You’ve got to be ready for some wacky scenes and crude dialogue, which the film showcases in usually a very timely manner.  Also Jackie Moon’s fro is groovy.

                The rundown is Jackie Moon is trying with all he’s got to keep his dream of keeping his team intact and into the NBA via a merger.  The problem is his terrible garbage record, low attendance and failure to see a realistic goal.  He decides to shake things up by trading the team’s washing machine for Ed Monix (Woody Harrelson), a washed up former NBA player.  The race is on as the team tries to organize themselves on the floor but that’s difficult when Jackie Moon is making his players learn halftime show performances.  They straighten up under Monix’s tutelage and get back on a winning streak.

                The laughs abound especially if you focus in on what you watch.  Corn dog night is hilarious as it’s a rouse to get fans to the game.  “We don’t even have corn dogs!” Jackie blurts out in a team huddle trying to prevent his own team from eclipsing 125 so he doesn’t have to give away free corn dogs to the fans in the stands.  The absurdity of Jackie Moon never quits so you never get left wading through scenes of extreme disinterest.  Wearing eye liner to attract ratings for the broadcast is such a hair brain idea but results in some funny images that eventually leads to a mini-brawl.  The scene with Dewey the bear is what keeps this movie at a ridiculous level.  Jackie is convinced he is the best promoter in the business so decides to fight a baby bear in a cage for his fans.  How about Kyle’s (Rob Corrdry) sick fascination with his girlfriend and Monix?  It’s disgusting and gross but it’s oddly hilarious.  Jackie arguing with the refs is great.  I get the feeling his confronting them to dispute calls was a current mockery to the real NBA players that already perform such childish behavior, love it!  The premise of Jackie’s character is to do that and it works for me.  The scene where Clarence “Downtown” Withers (Andre Benjamin) enters the game late and dribbles around with the whole opposing team chasing him is killer!  He hits the three then the Tropics celebrate like crazy while you see the other team score an easy basket in the background.  It’s the stuff like that throughout the movie that’s so funny if you keep a constant eye for it.

                Downtown gets an ego check by Monix to be more than he can be, considering he is the Tropics best player with NBA aspirations.  It’s a neat side story to see him become as great as he should provided he’s not wasting his time showboating.  He ends up making it the San Antonio Spurs which is a cool finale for his character.  The $10,000 moon shot is awesome!  Jackie Earl Haley plays Dukes, a stereotypical hippie who cashes in big with a three quarters court heave.  The further scenes with Jackie and Dukes are absolutely hilarious as Dukes tries to cash in a novelty check at a real bank, ha-ha!  Jackie says we have no sponsor I just thought it’d look cool!  It’s amazing comedy writing to see these moments connect the movie.  I can’t go without mentioning Will Arnett, who plays Lou Redwood, and his very funny role as the radio announcer.  I’ll share one moment that was really funny in which he expresses his dream to throw on a uniform and get back out there on the court.  His partner on the radio broadcast Dick Pepperfield (Andrew Daly) replies well sometimes dreams can turn into nightmares Lou.  Arnett answers back with a WTF is wrong with you line that is delivered with perfection. 

                Here are some phrases I’d like to add for your enjoyment.  If you see a possum, kill it, it’s not a pet.  You call me a jive turkey?  Suck my cock; I’ll murder your family!  Who the fxck is Bambi?  Your refund will be escaping this death trap with your lives!  Jackie making fun of Bakidis is some of the best stuff, as follows.  Learn fxcking English!  From a weird country called Lithuania, he’s ugly as sh!t!

                The alley-oop integration was sensational!  It’s a fantastic basketball move that gets introduced in the movie at just the right moment.  I’m not a huge Will Ferrell fan but he did incredible this time bringing the laughs.  I could share more of the scenes and moments that made me like this movie so much but perhaps I’ll save that for another time as I’ve went on and on already.   

                Rating: 9 of 10

The labels just below can link you to similar posts about this one so check them out!

No comments:

Post a Comment