Semi-Pro

Will Farrell doesn't bring many critics to their feet cheering with his sports-related comedies, but he often does receive polite applause. Such is the case with Semi-Pro, in which Ferrell portrays the owner, coach, and star of a 1970s basketball team. Matt Zoller Seitz writes in the New York Times that the movie "finds the sweet spot between sports melodrama and parody, and hammers it for 90 diverting minutes." Claudia Puig in USA Today pronounces the film "definitely more than semi-funny" and concludes, "If you're a Ferrell fan, and if you enjoy his particular brand of eccentric tomfoolery, it's worth taking a chance on Semi-Pro." Michael Sragow in the Baltimore Sun also seems mildly amused. "The pacing and the staging are lackadaisical at best, but the virtue of this film's looseness is that it has some of the airy unpredictability of the best late-night TV comedy," he writes. Nevertheless, some critics blow the whistle on the movie. Kyle Smith in the New York Post leads off his review by remarking that "Semi Pro goes up for the dunk and misses the hoop, the backboard and the point." Jack Mathews in the New York Daily News compares Ferrell's performance in the movie with his real-life appearances on recent TV shows in which he ends up "embarrassing both the hosts and himself by acting crazy." In the same way, writes Mathews, "The movie itself leaps onto the screen and makes goofy faces at you without being either funny or involving."