Semi-Pro

With Semi-Pro, a thinly scripted sports comedy set in the 1970s, Will Ferrell finally shows signs of having exhausted his limited repertoire of laugh-provoking tricks. Jackie Moon (Ferrell) is an obnoxious, loud-mouthed owner/player of a semi-pro basketball team. When the league threatens to drop the team, Jackie resorts to outlandish promotional schemes to boost game attendance, hiring a discredited pro named Monix (Woody Harrelson), who reluctantly takes charge of the rudderless squad and whips it into shape while simultaneously trying to patch things up with a former girlfriend (Maura Tierney). The Harrelson/Tierney subplot not only consumes a fair amount of footage, but also undermines Ferrell, who is effectively reduced to playing a comic sidekick in his own starring vehicle. It's obvious that director Kent Alterman didn't exert much control over his star: Ferrell ad-libs to wildly uneven effect, clearly overcompensating for an inadequately developed screenplay. Supporting players André Benjamin, Will Arnett, Andy Richter, and David Koechner also suffer from the paucity of funny gags. Semi-Pro isn't entirely devoid of laughs, but it's a half-baked effort, even by the relaxed standards of a Ferrell film. Not a necessary purchase. [Note: Available in either R-rated or two-disc unrated versions, or a two-disc Blu-ray version, DVD/Blu-ray extras on the double-disc editions include both the theatrical and unrated extended (by seven minutes) versions on the first disc. Disc 2 includes “The Man Behind Semi-Pro” 24-minute featurette on director Kent Alterman, a 15-minute “From the Cutting Room” section (with deleted, alternate, and improv scenes), “Re-Creating the ABA” basketball training camp videos (13 min.), “A Short History of the ABA” featurette (7 min.), a “Love Me Sexy” featurette on the film's fictional one-hit wonder (6 min.), a “Four Days in Flint” location featurette (6 min.), a three-minute “Bill Walton Visits the Set” segment featuring the retired player, “Flint Tropics Hot Talk with Dick Petterfield” promo clips featuring costar Andrew Daly (3 min.), the music video for “Love Me Sexy,” and trailers. The standard DVD release also includes a bonus digital copy of the film, while the Blu-ray version features an exclusive “Super Agility Trainer” interactive game. Bottom line: a decent extras package for a lame comedy.] (E. Hulse)