SEMI-PRO ½

Will Ferrell, Woody Harrelson, and Maura Tierney star is what's supposed to be a sports comedy. Directed by Kent Alterman it's one hour and thirty minutes long and is rated R.

Ferrell is the owner of the Flint Michigan Tropics, the worst team in the ABA. It's in danger of folding but salvation seems imminent when a merger with the NBA is announced. However, the NBA doesn't want them and the only way they can be accepted is to be one of the top four teams and have an average crowd of 2,000. In order to become a winning team he brings in Harrelson, a former NBA player who only comes because he's in love with Tierney. That leaves Ferrell with time to think of some audience building stunts (like boxing a grizzly bear during half time).

I can think of several films that have been crude, profane but outrageously funny. When the funny is missing, however, what you have is dull, and that's what we have here. There's a much larger cast than I listed above but I left them out because they really don't have much to do. Tierney isn't used all that much and it's too bad I can't say the same about Ferrell. To be honest, I'm not a fan of Ferrell and I don't really care for basketball so this film had two strikes against it before I sat down to watch. But I do like comedy and I can recognize its absence which is why I don't recall laughing once during this mess. Those adolescent males who think crude and profane is in itself funny may well like this film. Everyone else, not so much.