Will Ferrell's 'Semi-Pro' should be semi-good By Kelly Dwyer Wednesday, Dec 5, 2007 11:06 am EST By now you’ve probably seen the trailer (available here and at the bottom of this post) which has likely alternately reminded you of most other Will Ferrell comedy turns -- hairy, smirking, full of hubris and … again, pretty hairy -- as well as Burt Reynolds’ infamous 1972 spread in Cosmopolitan magazine; a picture I’m linking to mainly because I’ve gone way past Yahoo!’s collectively bargained allotment of man-thigh per post. (And, really, it has nothing to do with Sir Burt. The trailer is obviously a take off on this photo of the late former Nets forward -- and current Andres Nocioni doppelganger -- Wendell Ladner.) The movie itself seems quite promising. Purportedly, it’s working as a fictional account of an ABA team based out of Flint, Michigan; hoping to win enough to convince the NBA to include it amongst the teams they’re willing to ask millions of dollars of in return for absorption into the NBA (that last part was a little bit of non-fiction, but that’s how it goes). Hopefully, the tome draws heavily from Terry Pluto’s absolutely essential oral history of the ABA, “Loose Balls.” Even if it doesn’t, I get the feeling that the impetus is sound: Ferrell is reported to have picked the brain of former ABA player and NBA coach George Irvine (as in “win”); and Ferrell’s good mate (and Funny or Die co-conspirator) Adam McKay is a pretty sound NBA fan. McKay often took great delight in dropping random NBA non-sequiturs into his sketches while a writer at Saturday Night Live. He was spied wearing both Timberwolves and Knicks t-shirts in various bits, and went on a lengthy (if profane) diatribe discussing a random NBA power forward (we’re guessing Michael Cage) during the commentary tracks that were a feature on the Anchorman DVD. Speaking of which, in that movie, Ferrell shined brightly in a scene that saw his character -- full of the choicest hops -- wondering if Wilt Chamberlain was on the other line of a phone call to his San Diego bachelor pad (6:33 into this clip). Now, it’s a pretty obscure fact that Wilt used to coach the San Diego Conquistadors (after being recruited to play for the fledgling outfit) in 1973, but that’s a year that falls right in line with Anchorman’s sense of polyester, sexism, and fondue … and I’d like to think Will and McKay were pretty aware of Wilt’s time in that fine city when they put that scene together. Then again, I’m probably reading too much into this, and I’m the sort of guy that will try to eventually weasel “I love lamp” into my wedding vows, but it’s worth hanging onto at this point. Just as we've learned to expect certain things from certain teams -- the Pistons will take a lot of jumpers, play good defense and keep a healthy dialogue with the referees -- we've come to expect certain things from Will and co.: solid laughs, stupid jokes and plenty of hair. object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/TTyY8wAYh7o&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/TTyY8wAYh7o&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>
