Shawn's Semi-Pro Review

Well the pattern continues. I watched this movie almost a week ago now and still haven't reviewed it. Not to mention the fact I'm incredibly far behind on watching movies from the past few weeks. I think everything fell apart with Definitely, Maybe. When I missed that movie, I used it to justify missing other ones with the logic of "well you're already behind anyway." Thus begins my efforts to try and catch up.

2008 Movie #27 - Semi-Pro

What the fuck are you doing to me February? I picked Jumper and Semi-Pro in a tie for what would be the two best movies of the month. Well I ended up giving Jumper 2 stars and now I'm about to do the exact same thing to this movie too. I never thought that's how things would end up.

Let me start off by saying I like Will Ferrel. I find him funny. I would rank Anchorman and Old School right up at the top of the list of my favourite comedies. I loved Stranger than Fiction and enjoyed Talladega Nights and Blades of Glory as well. Granted he's certainly been in some shit (*kicks Bewitched in the throat*) I think that covers all of the main ones. This movie ranks as the first one of this movies that I would consider a full out disappointment. This is made especially worse by the fact that it's his first R-rated comedy since Old School so there was potential out the ass with this one. It's really too bad it kind of falls flat in the end.

The trailers for this one didn't look great but I chalked it up to the fact that it was R rated and they couldn't show some of the funnier bits in the trailer. Not so much. The funniest part of this movie is the bear wrestling and that segment is all over the trailers. That part is pretty damn funny, as are a couple of other parts/lines scattered throughout the movie. The problem is that there are just too few of these parts. There are huge stretches of the movie with just no real laughs. Some segments (such as the russian roulette sequence) just kept on going even though you already knew where things were going.

There's also the subplot with Woody Harrelason (wow theres no way thats how you spell his name but whatever) and Maura Tierney and a love story. It's ridiculously out of place. It's almost as if the writer had two screenplays on the go at once and part of one accidently found its way into this one. Either he didnt notice or he just didnt give a shit and we ended up with this storyline that always brings things to a screeching halt.

In the end, the problem with Semi-Pro is that it simply isn't funny enough. It has a couple good laughs, but not enough to make it worth recommending. Will Ferrel may need to try something different as his movies are starting to run the risk of becoming a little stale. Hopefully Step Brothers turns out to be a nice surprise.

**/5