Not half-bad

I’ve seen this clip before, back in 2004. A basketball team gets in a big fight against a team from Michigan and all hell breaks loose.
But in the new film spoofing the American Basketball Association, “Semi-Pro,” when Jackie Moon’s (Will Ferrell) team, the Flint Michigan Tropics, gets in a brawl during a commercial time-out, the crowd dies with laughter.
Moon, the team’s owner, promoter, player and coach, has to get the worst team in the ABA out of the cellar when he finds out only the top four teams in the league will merge with the NBA. With the help of experienced player Ed Monix (Woody Harrelson) and superstar Clarence “Coffee” Black (André Benjamin), the team rallies in hopes of the NBA dream.
“Semi-Pro” does not represent Ferrell’s best work, but it's still funny throughout the entire movie. Moon’s promotions – including a cage-match fight with Dewey the bear, a three-quarters-of-a-court shot for a big check that says $10,000 and a roller-skate jump over the Tropics dancers – provide some mild entertainment between games.
However, it is Ferrell’s usual shtick that keeps the movie going. He trades Monix for a washing machine and steals the lyrics of his hit song “Love Me Sexy” from his mother days before she dies. And, like in every movie he’s in, Ferrell struts his stuff in the short shorts way more than most of the audience needs to see.
Another nice touch was Father Pat the ref (Matt Walsh), but he saw limited minutes on the screen and should have been used more. Also, much of the riffs on commentating by Lou Redwood (Will Arnett) and Dick Pepperfield (Andrew Daly) felt forced, trying way too hard to be funny and rarely getting the laughs desired when Ferrell was absent.
There was also a strange side story with Harrelson and Lynn (Maura Tierney), who had an intimate past and were reunited in Flint despite living with another guy. It was unclear if that guy was her brother or husband or boyfriend, but the whole story could have easily been edited out and the movie would have been better off.
The movie is a mix of “Talladega Nights” humor in an “Anchorman” time period, complete with afros, funk and scarfs. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys good Ferrell humor, and I especially recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the ABA or is currently cheering for a struggling NBA team that desperately needs Ferrell’s promotions to make the games bearable.