A buddy of mine caught a sneak preview yesterday and loved it. He said Ferrell cusses non-stop. "MOM! MEATLOAF!"
I liked The Ballad of Ricky Bobby ... a lot. As in the following. Mrs. B-Bob and I went to a wedding on the east coast and on the flight back we flew standby and sat in different areas of the plane, not next to each other. As usual, she reads a book and I watch the inflight movie or stare at the seat in front of me (sort of like Puddy in Seinfeld). Well, also I like doing SudoRku during flights... Anyway, she hears this "r****ded sounding" laughter, looks up, sees a pyramid of dogs on the screen, turns around to see that, yes, her husband is the only person on a packed flight laughing out loud at the movie. But yeah, he needs to mix it up, and I'm not going to see Semi-Pro... unless it's showing on a plane.
So I saw Semi-Pro tonight Spoiler By now everyone should know: I like Will Ferrell. That said, I thought this movie was a letdown. There were some really good scenes, but far too few. I loved the poker playing "jive turkey" scene. I thought that was the funniest bit of the movie. I also enjoyed the banter between Dick Pepperfield and Lou Redwood. I also liked the birth of the alley oop. For the life of me I could not understand what the Woody Harrelson love story added to the movie. Less Woody, more Will. I actually felt like Blades Of Glory was a better overall movie. Semi-Pro was just too slow in too many parts. They did show the trailer for Ferrell's next movie "Step-Brothers". Again, the trailer shows some promise, but I'm afraid to go out on a limb.
I went with 1560 to Semi Pro-Looza, won a free ticket (hey watching it for free makes it better already) Personally, I didnt agree with those who said it was better than anchorman. It had some epic moments, but overall it cant outdo that epic movie. Overall, it was really funny, but still... there were some scenes that Im still laughing about... some moments truly did kick major @$$ and i saw the preview for stepbrothers- cant wait!
i thought the movie was good and funny, i was into it you guys expect so much out of a movie, thats why y'all get disappointed. but overall it was entertaining.
I agree. More Monix meant less Jackie Moon screen time. Bad decision as far as I'm concerned. The other problem was, like most sports movies, it followed the same tired "underdog" team forumula. I think a lot of the elements for a good movie were there. I'm just surprised when all the production and editing was done that they felt like this movie was a winner. I have a hard time believing even Ferrell thought this was a great movie. You would think they'd want to go back and re-shoot some stuff. And if you're gonna make an "R" rated movie, show at least one pair of breasts.
http://www6.comcast.net/entertainment/articles/2007/12/23/ENTERTAINMENT-BOXOFFICE-DC/[ Ferrell basketball comedy bombs at box office LOS ANGELES — He shoots. He ... misses. Will Ferrell stumbled at the North American box office on Sunday with his latest sports comedy, "Semi-Pro." The basketball spoof narrowly took the No. 1 spot with disappointing ticket sales of $15.3 million, its struggling distributor New Line Cinema said. Industry observers had expected the movie to open above $20 million. It falls well short of the $33 million debut of Ferrell's 2007 ice-skating comedy "Blades of Glory" and the $47 million bow of his 2006 NASCAR outing "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby." "Semi-Pro," which cost $57 million to make, stars Ferrell as the flamboyant owner of a fictional underdog team in the American Basketball Association, the renegade league taken over by the National Basketball Association in the 1970s. New Line, also a renegade studio in its heyday, faces a similar fate. Its Time Warner Inc parent announced on Thursday that the 40-year-old studio would be absorbed by its bigger corporate sibling, Warner Bros. Pictures, after a string of costly duds, most recently "The Golden Compass." A New Line official was not available for comment. Observers said "Semi-Pro" was hurt by a restrictive "R" rating, which requires viewers under 17 to be accompanied by an adult. "Blades of Glory" and "Talladega Nights" both carried a teen-friendly PG-13 rating. "Semi-Pro" marked the feature directing debut of Kent Alterman, a former New Line executive.
That R rating kind of surprised me for Semi-Pro, since all of his movies to date have been either PG or PG-13 if I'm not mistaken (Wedding Crashers aside, since he only had a bit part) And based solely on the trailers, I'm wondering, why was it rated that mature and did it even need to be? And I'm betting the other reason it didn't do so well was because he's had a string of sports related movies lately; and even going back to Anchorman he's essentially playing the same character. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I do think it's a clear sign the movie going public wants something fresh. And not only that, but his supporting cast seems to be getting progressively worse. That's what made Anchorman so great, and to a lesser extent Talladega Nights (I missed Steve Carrel in that one though).
I'll be honest. I've never seen a Will Ferrell movie. And I'm a type of person who sees upwards of 30 films a year at the theatre. I've heard about Ferrell's movies, but I have never seen one. Which movie of his should I start at? And which ones are worth skipping?
I think you have to start with Anchorman...definitely his best, if only because he has such a great supporting cast. Talladega Nights falls a close second to Anchorman and like I said I think the only missing from it was Steve Carell. Stranger Than Fiction was very good; it's his Truman Show but not quite on the same level imo. I'd skip Elf and Blades of Glory.
While the plot wasn't all that great in this movie, I found it pretty funny for the most part. You definitely have to like Ferrell to like this movie. There were a couple of moments where I laughed as hard as I have at just about any movie in this one. I think some of you set your expectations too high for it...that's usually what movie reviews are based on, is expectations. I didn't expect another "Old School" or "Anchorman" out of this, so I wasn't let down.
I tried to give Old School a shot, but I'm sorry that movie sucked. But then, Will Ferrell wasn't in the lead role and I don't care for Vince Vaughn all that much.
I thought it was fairly funny, I felt like it was Superbad, it was HILARIOUS in the beginning, then kinda died down, it was a good movie, but was pretty inconsistent. I thought Blades of Glory was better but Semi-Pro had its parts. Spoiler "From Yugoslavia, and one UGLY MOTHER-****ER" had me rollin the crowd and the referee's response to the first alley-hoop was freaking hilarious.
i havent seen anchorman yet (oh noes! i know but its on the way in the mail) but of the ferrell movies i have seen old school and stranger than fiction were by far my favorite two. havent seen semi-pro and do not plan to see it either
You're damn right my expectations were high for it. If Ferrell is going to promote the hell out of it from talks shows to Old Spice commercials then I'm going to expect to get something good in return. As I said in my spoiler, it boggles my mind that they didn't tweak this to make it a better movie. I don't have a problem with it being rated R. Wedding Crashers and Superbad were also rated R and didn't have any problems making money.
I liked it. I think the problem is Will Ferrell is in the "it's cool to think he sucks" zone right now. He's in good company though, SNL, the Simpsons, etc. The sub plot of Woody Harrelson's character was pretty clumsy, the only good thing about it was Rob Cordry as the husband obsessed with Monix (Maura Tierney sex scene not too bad for the News Radio fans either). "7 foot 2 and UGLY AS S**T!" "You callin' me a 'jive turkey' my man?" "No no, nobody called you a 'JT'"
