Semi-Pro: DVD, Blu-ray Movie Review (2008)

Full-on awful.

This dumb, unfunny comedy had the packed crowd at my screening last March lulled into the sort of restless coma in which all you could hear was breathing. And sighing. And if the guy in front of me was any indication, also deep moments of slumber.

Once again, Will Ferrell trots out that same ol' bumbling shtick he's been prostituting to the masses for years, this time in a movie about a middling semi-pro basketball team that has a shot at the NBA.

Though elements are in place for a good comedy, none of it comes together.

Ferrell’s flabby, middle-aged Jackie Moon sports the sort of tawny Afro Barbra Streisand donned during her Esther Hoffman days in 1976's "A Star is Born,” but the wig isn't funny and neither is his performance, which is sacked by a script that doesn't allow him the sort of lines this otherwise talented comedian could sell.

In subplots are Woody Harrelson, David Koechner and Maura Tierney, but they’re equally stranded along the sidelines of one hollow court.

Rated PG-13. Grade: BOMB

Read the full, unedited review here.