Semi-Pro (2008)

Jackie Moon, the owner-coach-player of the American Basketball Association's Flint Michigan Tropics, rallies his teammates to make their NBA dreams come true

Director:

Kent Alterman

Writer:

Scot Armstrong

Stars:

Will Ferrell, Woody Harrelson, André Benjamin

1 win & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Will Ferrell	...	Jackie Moon
Woody Harrelson	...	Monix
André Benjamin	...	Clarence
Maura Tierney	...	Lynn
Andrew Daly	...	Dick Pepperfield
Will Arnett	...	Lou Redwood
Andy Richter	...	Bobby Dee
David Koechner	...	Commissioner
Rob Corddry	...	Kyle
Matt Walsh	...	Father Pat the Ref
Jackie Earle Haley	...	Dukes
DeRay Davis	...	Bee Bee Ellis
Josh Braaten	...	Twiggy Munson
Jay Phillips	...	Scootsie Double Day
Peter Cornell	...	Vakidis

Storyline

Three men, three dreams. It's 1976 in Flint, Michigan. Jackie Moon's American Basketball Association team languishes in last place, with few fans in the seats. Jackie dreams of a merger with the NBA. A tough-minded point guard named Monix is at the end of his career; he's played on the champion Celtics but accepts a trade to Flint to be close to Lynn, the love of his life. Clarence "Coffee" Brown dreams of stardom: he's the Tropics' best player, but he's a hotdog who doesn't value teamwork. When the trio learns that a merger is in the works that won't include the Tropics, they pull the team together to try to achieve the impossible. Can dreams come true in Flint?

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Plot Keywords:

nba | basketball | team | flint michigan | merger | 

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Taglines:

The Greatest Fro on Earth

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Genres:

Comedy | Sport

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and some sexual content

Details

Official Sites:

New Line Cinema [United States]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

29 February 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

Fél-profi

Filming Locations:

Santa Clarita, California, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

£774,698 (UK) (29 February 2008)

Gross:

$33,472,850 (USA) (25 April 2008)

Company Credits

Production Co:

New Line Cinema, Mosaic Media Group, Donners' Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min 98 min (unrated DVD) 99 min (unrated)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Michael Westphal, one of the bench players for the Tropics, is the son of NBA player and coach Paul Westphal.

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Goofs

The Tropics play the Anaheim Amigos and the Spirits of St. Louis in 1972. The Amigos played only during the 1967-68 season, before becoming the Los Angeles Stars. The Spirits didn't play until the 1974-75 season.

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Quotes

Jackie Moon: Nothing in the rulebook that says you can't play drunk.
Dick Pepperfield: Well actually there is.

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Crazy Credits

At the end of the credits, Will Ferrell's voice can be heard calling, "Precious? Here Dewey."

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Connections

Referenced in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: Episode #7.23 (2008)

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Soundtracks

"Tell Me Something Good"
Written by Stevie Wonder
Performed by Ronnie Laws
Courtesy of Blue Note Records
Under license from EMI Film & Television Music

User Reviews

Semi-funny

Figured the holiday was a great time to catch this movie, which I wasn't overly excited about, but thought it would be something to do on a lazy afternoon.

Got to the cinema a tad early and sat down and played some golf on my phone. About 10 mins in and I was the only one there. Awesome. Sadly about 5mins later two losers with no friends walked in, making it a cosy cinema of 3.

The film starts with a pre-game intro of the Flint Tropics, a struggling team in the former ABA basketball league. We learn from the get go that Jackie Moon (Ferrell, in a role not much of a stretch for him) is the team owner, promoter, coach as well as a player. Jackie brought the team on the back of his one-hit wonder "Love Me Sexy" and is in it just for the fame and fun. Before too long Jackie finds out his team will absorbed by the ABA-NBA merger...unless he can get them in the Top 4 teams. Jackie goes out and signs (from a trade for a washing machine) Monix, played by formerly good actor Woody Harrelson in a minor attempt to tun things around. Soon he makes some other changes, such as agreeing to let Monix become coach to get his team into the NBA. Will it work......? See it to find out.

There's some more good quirky Ferrell humour, but this isn't a classic. The story had a lot more potential but in some circumstances went too oddball and weird and missed some good opportunities, probably largely due to the extra screen time given to Ferrell. Give him a few better support comedians and this could have been a classic. They missed some great opportunities with the basketball action too. One of the early scenes was gold.....but then after that very little was paid attention to.