I am fully aware that at the end of my last blog I was going to review Death Sentence. But recently, I was offered a chance to prescreen Will Ferrell’s new film, Semi Pro and I decided that this would be a better choice for a review seeing that it is more timely.
For those of you who were looking forward to my review for Death Sentence I’ll give you the abbreviated version. Death Sentence is about a father who goes after a gang after his son is brutally murder by them. It is the basic revenge flick – Think The Punisher, The Crow and Boondock Saints. I’ve always enjoyed Kevin Bacon and I thought he did a wonderful job at playing a tortured, vengeful father and John Goodman plays a decent bad guy but I wanted to see him more . The foreshadowing and symbolism in this film was at an all time high, it worked really, really well but seemed a little over the top. The directing was done really well and had great atmosphere, and there is a pseudo-twist at the end that is very James Wan-ish (he directed and co-wrote the first Saw film). There is one very memorable scene that is the required chase scene for any action movie and it is done damn near in one single shot. It was beautifully done and might have been my favorite part of the movie. The first two thirds is really intense and and great, the last third, however, felt rushed and lacked the intensity that the rest of the movie provided. It is jam packed with action, (some) intensity and gore. If you are into this type of thing it is definitely worth checking out if you have nothing else to do with your evening. I give it 3 out of 5 ridiculously bloody, bullet-riddled, vengeful deaths.
Now for Will Ferrell’s new flick, drum roll please…, Semi-Pro. In this film Ferrell plays the owner, coach and star power-forward of a down and out semi-professional basketball team that is trying to make the cut for the big league before their program is discontinued.
This film provided plenty of laughs and a few memorable moments. The thing that ruined it for me was that I saw a R-rated version of the trailer on the Internet and that spoiled a lot of the BIG laughs of the film. Take that into account while reading this because that makes me sort of biased towards this film.
I absolutely loved Anchorman and I really disliked Talladega Nights and didn’t much care for Blades of Glory. Semi-Pro lands somewhere in between all of those films. It is nowhere near the quality of Anchorman but it made Talladega Nights look like Gigli in my opinion.
The direction on this film was very standard and typical, which I didn’t expect Citizen Kane going into it, so it’s all good. There are a few shots that make things seem really intense and powerful which makes it even more laughable. So kudos to you Mr. Director Man!
The story line is a very typical underdog sports movie. It has reminiscent elements of Anchorman with Will Ferrell being extremely cocky and phenomenally dumb. There is a cool part toward the end of the movie that I thought was really cool, I won’t go into detail so I don’t spoil it, but I have faith that if you catch this film you’ll see it an think “that is awesome.” The downside is that there are a few really, serious moments followed by some ridiculously, outlandish moments and I thought that it didn’t mesh very well. It really should have picked one or the other.
All in all, Semi-Pro is fun and entertaining with some refreshing R-rated, vulgar humor, but it really isn’t anything to write home about – I’m happy that I got to see it for free! I give Semi-Pro 3 out of 5 Jive Turkeys.
Stay Young, You’ll Live Longer –
CODYmcfly NEXT REVIEW: VANTAGE POINT???
