What Do The Critics Say?

"Will Ferrell in short shorts. Isn’t that enough to inspire you to see the movie Semi-Pro? The bottom line with Semi-Pro is that it’s a funny enough Will Ferrell movie to make it a hit with his fans." Kevin Carr FILM SCHOOL REJECTS "True to the Will Ferrell formula, going for the joke trumps plot and character development at every turn, with the trademark humor coming via nonsensical slapstick and such Seventies-era fashion statements as cotton-candy afros and loathsome leisure suit." Kam Williams EURWEB "Semi-Pro is the directorial debut of executive producer Kent Alterman and he exhibits a talent for pacing and gag placement. The production looks a little muddy, but that's in keeping with its low rent seventies feel." Laura Clifford REELIN GREVIEWS "The cast does, though, rise above the top (or bottom) of some situations and keeps the film on the positive side of funny." Michael A. Smith NOLAN'S POP CULTURE REVIEW "You can't help but marvel, and laugh at, Ferrell's indefatigable enthusiasm and willingness to make a complete ass of himself." Peter Howell TORONTO STAR "No one will argue that Semi-Pro isn't crude and lewd. Thanks to Ferrell and his cast of crazies, however, it plays the lowbrow genre like an all-pro. As most moviegoers are aware, there have been more misfit sports comedies than ducks have feathers. "Semi-Pro," which begins with raunchiness and gets dirtier from there, is one of the funnier ones." Larry Ratliff SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

"Flagrant, foul and funny, Ferrell's in his zone in "Semi-Pro". Some of the humor comes from (intentionally) telegraphing a joke from approximately the dawn of man and then hammering it home like John Henry. I laughed from start to finish at its relentlessly, energetically profane absurdity and a cast crammed with funny actors in even the smallest roles." Mark Rahner SEATTLE TIMES "Semi-Pro is short and sweet. In his own way, Ferrell is doing today what Martin did 30 years ago: creating a kind of put-on comedy that invites everybody in." Michael Sragow BALTIMORE SUN "Semi-Pro may look like recycled Will Ferrell, outrageous personality and all, but there is an attention to detail and a surreal seventies splash that makes it all work." Bill Gibron POPMATTERS "Like many of Will Ferrell’s recent films, "Semi-Pro" finds the sweet spot between sports melodrama and parody, and hammers it for ninety diverting minutes." Matt Zoller Seitz NEW YORK TIMES "If you're a Ferrell fan, this is probably the kind of movie you want to see him in." CHRIS HEWITT ST PAUL PIONEER EXPRESS "Very much in the tradition of Slap Shot, Semi-Pro scores big laughs with the rowdy play-by-play of hard-luck hoopsters struggling for professional survival. By turns riotously silly and casually clever, with the occasional outburst of inspired lunacy, pic benefits from perfect-pitch comic turns by Will Arnett and Andrew Daly as the Tropics' color commentators, Andy Richter as Jackie's loyal team manager, and Jackie Earl Haley as an easily befuddled stoner who scores nothing but net." Joe Leydon VARIETY

The Inside Story From 1967 to 1976, the American Basketball Association was a renegade basketball league that nipped at the heels of the NBA. Despite contributing some impressive innovations to the game and a style of play that emphasized flair and showmanship, the ABA was ultimately absorbed by its well-established competitor. Four of the ABA’s most successful teams remained intact following the merger: the San Antonio Spurs, Denver Nuggets, New York Nets and Indiana Pacers. "Semi-Pro" is the comedic story of the Flint Tropics, a fictitious ABA team that didn’t quite make it. The Tropics bear similarities to some of the defunct teams of the ABA: the Kentucky Colonels, the Anaheim Amigos and the Spirits of St. Louis. Though these teams are no longer in existence, they have a brief cinematic reprieve in Semi-Pro, as their logos and uniforms were painstakingly reproduced for the film’s game sequences. Perhaps the most famous player in the ABA was Julius Erving, better known as 'Dr J", who played for the Virginia Squires and the New York Nets. Other famous ABA players who went on to NBA glory include Artis Gilmore, George Gervin and James Silas. Erving and Gervin went on to be enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Though four of the ABA’s teams were adopted by the NBA, the leagues were very different. "There were a number of things that were different," says Artis Gilmore, who played for the Kentucky Colonels. "Probably one of the most unusual was the basketball, the colors of the basketball itself." The ABA basketball was red, white and blue, and it was a bit smaller than the NBA regulation-size ball. The three-point shot, now a mainstay of NBA games, was also an invention of the ABA. "There were a number of franchises that were not totally established," says James Silas. "The San Diego Conquistadors, for instance, played at San Diego State. There were a number of other teams you played a game with one day and then a few weeks later you might find out they’d disbanded. That happened with the Floridians during the year that I was drafted. Stability was certainly a challenge." The players supplemented their stability with ingenuity and creativity. George Gervin, whose nickname is 'Ice', remembers: "We used to have marketing ploys. When I would travel into different cities, the opposing team would have try and ‘hold’ Ice Gervin under thirty points. If they were successful, everybody would get free McDonalds or free Kentucky Fried Chicken. Needless to say, they were never successful at holding Gervin down." So what goal was Ice set? "My goal was to go in there and get fourty points and walk out of there saying: Nobody’s eating on Ice!" "The NBA was really where everybody wanted to be," Gervin recalls. "That was the best basketball in the world, but we felt that we could compete against them with our talent. We couldn’t compete with them as far as sponsorship and marketing, but we felt we had some very talented basketball players in the ABA. We had our own style. We were a community, like a family. We went out to eat together, we played cards together. It was a family atmosphere." Screenwriter Scot Armstrong first pitched the idea for "Semi-Pro" when he was in Los Angeles working on Todd Phillips’s "Old School", which Armstrong co-wrote and which co-starred Will Ferrell. Initially, he couldn’t find a home for the story. "Whenever I pitched the idea I would hear, 'It’s too crazy to recreate the ‘70s,' or 'It’ll be too expensive' or 'Can you do a modern version?' I wanted to do a real version of the ABA, which is what makes it special." Armstrong ultimately found supporters at New Line Cinema and the project was set in motion." Armstrong, who also wrote "Road Trip", "Starsky & Hutch" and "The Heartbreak Kid" revealed: "We recreated a league in the ‘70s with all the exact same logos, the same league, the same teams." And Armstrong has a lifelong affection for basketball. "As a kid I loved the ABA stuff. I even had a 'Dr J' ball. I liked the NBA, but the ABA invented the three point line and the slam dunk. They were the funkier, cooler league and I liked them better." Will Ferrell’s seemingly limitless comedic abilities inspired Armstrong to come up with inspired dialogue and situations. "There’s nothing more fun as a screenwriter than writing in the voice of Will Ferrell," Armstrong says. "I’d be typing and I’d start cracking up because I’d get a picture of him doing what’s written. He can do things that other people just can’t do. You can write a really simple scene and he takes it to the next level. He makes you look good as a writer." "I’d always kicked around the idea of doing a basketball film and I’m a big fan of the game, so when Scot told me he was working an idea for a movie about an ABA team, I thought it could be a lot of fun," says Ferrell. "I’m so glad he followed through on it." When the time came to enlist a director, the producers and New Line Cinema found an inspired candidate in Kent Alterman, who makes his directorial debut with "Semi-Pro". When Alterman made the transition to first-time feature director, he had the trust of Ferrell as a result of the creativity and commitment he had shown during their collaboration on "Elf". "The project came a long way," says Ferrell. "Kent was amazing. We were really impressed by the fact that he had really smart, creative ideas." Alterman has his own personal connection to the ABA. His father, uncle and a friend each put in seven hundred dollars and bought one share of the ABA Spurs team. Alterman and his family then had mid-court seats on the third row and he became a smart-aleck fixture at the Hemisphere Arena. Alterman, using his megaphone to harass, once provoked a visiting player to come into the stands and threaten him harm, something Alterman is not proud of today. The first time the Spurs made it to the playoffs, the cover photo of the program was not the expected shot of Spurs star George Gervin, but a crowd shot featuring Alterman, megaphone in hand. That same cover photo became the image for the Flint, Michigan Mega Bowl at the end of "Semi-Pro". Woody Harrelson ("White Men Can't Jump" & "North Country"), was cast as Monix, a former benchwarmer for the Boston Celtics who is acquired by the Flint Tropics in a trade. "I have a championship ring from my days on the Celtics, but I’ve been dropped down to the ABA and playing for the Kentucky Colonels. I get the golden opportunity to come to Flint, Michigan and play for the Tropics. That’s my character’s trajectory." 2008 Screen Actors Guild Award winner Harrelson ("No Country for Old Men") remembers his childhood experiences watching the ABA. "I remember watching the ABA when I was younger and really liking 'Dr J', of course. He was the guy who really made the ABA explode. There were other big players but 'Dr J' was the one for me at the time." Harrelson recalls, " At the time I didn’t know the difference between the ABA and the NBA, but I’ve learned a lot since." Musician and actor André Benjamin (" Be Cool", "Four Brothers" and "Idlewild"), a who is half of the acclaimed, multi-platinum selling music duo "Outkast" was cast as Clarence 'Coffee Black' Withers, the flamboyant 'superstar' of the Tropics. "I guess he’s the most athletic of them all," says Benjamin. "He has this natural ability from the neighborhood or from the playground style of playing. He likes to go for all the shots and doesn’t like to pass the ball. He doesn’t even run down the court to play defense." Josh Braaten plays Twiggy Munson, a naïve country boy from somewhere out in the sticks. "I got the script and loved it. I’ve been a huge fan of basketball all my life. During my audition, I got along great with Kent Alterman. We just talked about basketball for a while." Jay Phillips was cast as Scootsie Double Day. "I think I have the coolest name in the world for 1976. I love that name. Scootsie is a Bible thumper, but the only reason he became a Bible thumper is because he’s so bad that he had to hold himself down. And the only way he holds himself down is to keep that Bible with him." Peter Cornell plays Lithuanian powerhouse, Vakidis. He's "the first kind of foreign player to play in the ranks of professional basketball in the US," says Cornell. "I like to say my character is the pioneer of, uh, the eastern European invasion." Cornell is the only principal player who had a professional background. "I played basketball at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. And I spent the last nine years in the NBA, the minor leagues, Europe, Australia (West Sydney Razorbacks) and Japan and China. I’ve seen a lot and I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s been a very exciting career." 2000 WGA TV Award Winner Andy Richter ("Talladega Nights" & "Run Ronnie Run") was happy to join the cast as team manager Bobby Dee. "It was a lot of fun and those guys are friends of mine and I’ve known them for a long time. It was a great excuse to hang out with your friends." 2003 Copper Wing Award winner Maura Tierney ("Melvin Goes to Dinner") was cast as Lynn, Monix’s old flame who finds herself involved in an unusual romantic relationship. "This is the third movie I’ve done that takes place in the seventies and the second one I’ve done that takes place in 1976. I really like it and think I’m suited to it." Will Arnett ("Blades of Glory" & "Ratatouille"), plays team commentator Lou Redwood. "He’s a former player and current color commentator for the Tropics and sometimes for the ABA, for the league itself. He’s the right hand man of Dick Pepperfield, the play-by-play announcer for the Tropics." Andrew Daly ("Christmas with the Kranks") plays commentator Dick Pepperfield. "Will Arnett and I have just had so much fun sitting next to each other, goofing off all day long. Other team members are Dukes (Academy Award © nominee Jackie Earle Haley) and Kyle (cmedian Rob Corddry). Once the cast was in place, the actors went through two weeks of basketball practice and blocking, led by sports coordinator Mark Ellis ("Coach Carter" & "The Longest Yard"). Josh Braaten remembers the training camp "was pretty intensive. I think I lost somewhere between twelve and fifteen pounds in that two week span!" Synopsis

In the early 1970s, there were two basketball leagues in America. While the NBA ruled the sport, the ABA was defined by its outlaw flair and sensational showmanship. Jackie Moon, the one-hit wonder singing sensation who made a small fortune out of his hit single, "Love Me Sexy", relishes his role as owner, coach and power forward for the ABA aligned Flint, Michigan Tropics. Until the NBA announces a plan to merge with the ABA and only take four teams their teams into the NBA. Jackie is distaught. He pleads a case that to make it fair, the four highest ranked teams at the end of the current ABA season, should automatically qualify. Moon, assisted by former NBA benchwarmer Monix and flamboyant Clarence 'Downtown' Withers, decides to rally his motley team for an unlikely eleventh-hour pursuit of acceptance and glory. The NBA doesn't want the Tropics. They'll do anything to stop them. Everytime the Tropics reaches the qualifying bar, the NBA raises it higher. Moon, a master at promoting, goes on the attack.

The Verdict "If you're a Will Ferrell fan this film is right up your alley-oop. But if you're not, then heed this well intentioned warning: steer clear. That warning equally applies to those members of the politically correct, party-pooping, do-gooders variety and any one who, because of their religious beliefs is easily offended. Ferrell goes all out in his latest lampooning comedy "Semi-Pro", this time moving back to the seventies where the NBA and the ABA are about to create one major American basketball league. Before proceeding any further I must come clean. I am a big fan of Ferrell's. I hate political correctness. But I do believe in and respect every Christians right to express their faith and, worship a God who created (yes that's created) everything as oppossed to the accidental, mathematically impossible, random act of evolution, which is an easy cop-out for anyone who doesn't want to worship an unseen God because they think they're superior to, and much more intelligent than, a supreme, superior being they obviously can't see or physically touch. I also believe that God has a great sense of humour, except when it comes to blasphemey. I can imagine an excited Gabriel flying into the great hall of Heaven where God, Jesus and The Holy Ghost are seated on their thrones, listening to a joke about three deceased priests trying to get into heaven; a joke they are finding hard to hear because of the constant chanting of millions of Angels. Gabriel (in a Jewish accent that sounds awfully like Mel Brooks when he played an old Russian Jew in "The Critic") apologizes for interupting. God (using an african american accent) replies, "Don't diss yo self Gabe, I've heard this sorry assed jive story a milyun times. What's up nigga brother?" Gabriel answers, "You'll have to see for yourself Boss. That white trash schmuck Will Ferrell's up to it again!" Rising majestically from his throne and, hovering effortlessly on high, God (mimicking Marlon Brando's voice in "The Godfather) addresses the mass of chanting angels : "Quiet you bums. Enough already of the hallelujahing. Enough of the jokes. It's time for a real comedy break." The moral of this tale is simple: if you didn't find it funny, "Semi-Pro" most probably isn't for you. One for the fans. PYP profaninty. 4 STARS." Who's Who?

Will Ferrell Woody Harrelson André Benjamin Maura Tierney Andrew Daly Will Arnett Andy Richter David Koechner Rob Corddry Matt Walsh Jackie Earle Haley DeRay Davis Josh Braaten Jay Phillips Peter Cornell Pat Kilbane Patti LaBelle Tim Meadows Jason Sudeikis Kristen Wiig Ellia English Ian Roberts Phil Hendrie Ed Helms Brian Huskey Charlyne Yi

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Jackie Moon Monix Clarence 'Coffee' Black Lynn Dick Pepperfield Lou Redwood Bobby Dee Commissioner Kyle Father Pat the Ref Dukes Bee Bee Ellis Twiggy Munson Scootise Double Day Vakidis Petrelli Jackie's Mom Cornelius Banks Nacho Fan Bear Handler Ms Quincy Spurs Coach Nets Coach Turtleneck White Pants Wheelchair Jody

Run Time 91 minutes Rated M [AUST] Copyright ©2008 - New Line Cinemas - All Rights Reserved ©2008 All Rights Reserved - The Movie Pages & Impact Internet Services - Protected by Australian, International, Copyright & Trademark Laws.