"Semi-Pro"" is a Movie Worth Revisiting

I enjoy most sports movies. When the movies focus on sports I watch and play, that makes it an even better viewing experience for me. Over the weekend I revisited one such sports movie from the recent past that I like quite a bit. Let’s discuss.

After I run on Sunday mornings, and get cleaned up, I usually take a rest on the couch. Sometimes I doze off, other times I just want to chill and watch something on the tv. So, yesterday I searched on Max for something to pass the time. Eventually I came across the ABA movie, "Semi-Pro". This movie stars Will Ferrell, and it is about a fictional ABA team, the Flint Tropics. This was when Will Ferrell had a ton of heat on him. He had a blank check and he could do whatever he wanted. I feel like he was given this because of fans like me. I enjoy pretty much every Will Ferrell movie. Even in the adjectively bad movies, I find something to cling to and find myself laughing and laughing. Now, "Semi-Pro" is not a bad movie, far from it. I think it is very funny, the actors totally buy in and they all seem to be having a good time. They also get to cast all of their friends, the basketball is not that bad and the wardrobe is second to none.

For those that may not know, the ABA was a small rival to the NBA. The ABA was more fun, there were more fights, they introduced the 3 point line and dunk contest and the league was full of dysfunction and a form of thievery. "Semi-Pro" has it all, but they imagine a world where it wasn't a foregone conclusion that the Nets, Pacers, Nuggets and Spurs were always going to be the teams that the NBA inherited. In "Semi-Pro", the Kentucky Colonels, Spirits of Saint Louis and the Flint Tropics have a shot to be chosen by the NBA. All they have to do is finish in the top four of the league. This is the baseline story of the movie, but all the while there are jokes flying, solid basketball being played, silly arguments, dope funk music and Will Ferrell and his buddies having a great time on set.

First off, Ferrell plays Jackie Moon, the coach, owner and starting forward of the Tropics. He has a humongous curly afro and has "written" a hit song. He is hilarious. Patti LaBelle plays his mom too. It was so funny when she showed up in the movie. Alongside Ferrell, we have Andre 3000, Woody Harrellson and some other comedy buddies, all having the time of their lives. The point guard for the team has some of the best, most understated jokes in the whole movie. Andy Daly and Will Arnett are the announcers. Their back and forth is tremendous. Andy Ricther and Tim Meadows work with Ferrell and for the Tropics. The whole "jive turkey" scene is one of the most nonsensical and hilarious scenes in movie history for me. Kristen Wiig plays an animal tamer. Paul Rust and Jason Sudeikis are lifetime fans of the Tropics. Jackie Earl Haley, coming off an Oscar nomination, plays a hippy who happens to also be a fan. Rob Cordry is married to Maura Tierney, and he happens to be obsessed with Woody Harrellson's character. David Koechner is the commissioner of the NBA. Matt Walsh is a priest who moonlights as an ABA ref. I mean, the list of comedic names in this movie is truly staggering and makes it all the more funny. For that reason alone, this movie is worth the watch. But, as I said before, the basketball is very well filmed in this movie. Andre 3000 has some skills. When they show them figuring out how to do an alley oop, not only is it funny, but it also looks great. Harrellson obviously has skills due to his time in "White Men Can't Jump". It is no secret that Will Ferrell enjoys basketball. The actors in this movie have enough skills to make it look realistic. Finally, for me, the music in the movie is rad. It is all 70's funk, which I adore. The bass is thumping, the guitars are groovy and the singing makes me yearn to listen to more Parliament. When Ferrell is driving to the club after the first scene in the movie, he is listening to an old school funk song and I find myself singing along with every rewatch of this movie.

"Semi-Pro" is an underrated gem from the late 2000's. It is much better than the critics gave it credit for, and better than you probably remember it being if you have only seen it once. Yesterday was probably the 5th or 6th time I have seen it, and I cannot wait to watch it again. "Semi-Pro" has a special place for me. It is pretty wonderful. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Cloves and Fedoras: Ty thinks "A Deadly Adoption" was deadly boring.

Cloves and Fedoras is Seed Sings reviews for little known pieces of pop culture (or older pieces).  Feel free to contact us with your own submissions of undiscovered gems that must be known. 

I finally got around to watching the Lifetime movie "A Deadly Adoption" the other night.

You know the movie I am talking about, the made for Lifetime movie starring Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig. I had huge expectations for this. I thought it was going to be a work of comedic over acting and terribly written dialogue delivered from two pretty great actors.

Well, the dialogue was pretty terribly written and performed as such, but the jokes and Wiig and Ferrell being in on the absurdity of this was missing. This was a pretty straight forward, completely ridiculous Lifetime presentation. It was just like every other movie on that channel. It was melodramatic lunacy and Ferrell and Wiig were acting as if they weren't humongous stars. They acted as if this was a real job for them, like they really needed the work. There was little to no lunacy from the two of them and that was highly upsetting to me. The only humor I really got out of "A Deadly Adoption" was how seriously they tackled the issue of child diabetes. Wiig and Ferrell's daughter in the movie has diabetes and there were many mentions about not keeping real sugar in the house and how she desperately needed her insulin when she was held captive. The movie was insane from start to finish. It opened with a pregnant Wiig hanging out on a dock by a boat and she slips off the dock, can't swim and Ferrell rescues her, but they lose the baby. Fast forward five years and Ferrell is a very over protective father of their one child. He's also a very successful financial author. They take in a young pregnant girl because they want to adopt her baby so their daughter can have a brother. But, a little to on the nose, there's something a little off about this girl. She's clearly hitting on Ferrell's character and wants Wiig's character out of the picture. She also has a bad news boyfriend who is about as white trash as they come. It's eventually found out that the young lady isn't pregnant at all. I know, real shocker right? She and her boyfriend just want ransom money from Wiig and Ferrell since they've decided to kidnap their daughter. At least that's what the boyfriend wants. Turns out that after they lost their child in the accident five years ago, Ferrell's character hit the bottle pretty hard and met a groupie of his on the road and slept with her. You know that common story of a famous author having groupies and a crippling alcohol addiction. Ridiculous. Well that groupie turned out to be, wait for it, the young "pregnant" lady they let stay in their home. Needless to say, she just wants to be with Ferrell and his daughter and have a "normal" family. She tries to kill Wiig by knocking her unconscious and putting her in her car and turning the engine on and closing the garage door. Ferrell comes home after a night of searching for his daughter only to be met by the crazy girl(I can't remember any of the names of the characters because this movie was so stupid) and she shoots him twice in the arm, albeit by accident because she says she doesn't want to hurt him. She flees and Ferrell finds Wiig in the garage. He removes her from the car and gets her breathing again and he's back on the road to search for his daughter. Now, we see the crazy girl and the daughter speeding away in a pick up truck, all the while the little girl complaining that her stomach hurts and she needs her insulin. I say again, ridiculous. Ferrell finds them, confronts the crazy girl, pretends to let his daughter go with her, only to have them both jump in an idling boat under the bridge and before the crazy girl can get a shot off, Wiig plugs her in the back with a bullet. Another flash forward, this time only six months, and all is well. Ferrell has even calmed down on the over bearing parenting and the family breaks out into a dance. Then, end credits.

All I could think of was, WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?! This made me feel like I was going crazy. It was so bizarre. I guess I expected something different, akin to James Franco's role on the soap opera he was on. I didn't expect Ferrell and Wiig to take it so seriously. Maybe it's just me, but I was looking for something way different and therein lies the problem. Don't expect anything good or promising from any programming Lifetime TV puts out there. You will be highly disappointed.

This was a real drag.

Ty 

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for Seed Sing. He is an author but does not have groupies (yet). Follow him on twitter @tykulik.

Cloves and Fedoras: Who is joining Ty for a Lifetime movie viewing?

Cloves and Fedoras is Seed Sings reviews for little known pieces of pop culture (or older pieces).  Feel free to contact us with your own submissions of undiscovered gems that must be known. 

This Saturday on the Lifetime Television Network everyone needs to tune in to watch "A Deadly Adoption."

This is the rumored movie starring Kristen Wiig and Will Ferrell on the Lifetime Channel! It's really happening! I saw the trailer for it this morning and was shocked at how serious it looked. This is a legit Lifetime type movie according to the preview.

Will Ferrell and Kristin Wiig play a successful married couple with what looks to be one daughter. Next, we see Wiig talking to Ferrell saying, "the agency may have found us a single mother." I guess they can't have anymore kids, we will have to tune in to find out, but want a brother or sister for their daughter. Then Ferrell begins to treat this young, attractive pregnant girl with extreme politeness. He seems almost too kind, almost as if he has a thing for her. Smash cut to Wiig yelling at him saying that he is ruining the good thing that they have, and he brought this into their house. The next thing they show in the trailer is the pregnant girl ripping Wiig's character out of a picture so it only shows Ferrell's characters face. This I assume implies that she wants Wiig out of the picture. Then the final thing we see is a car barreling down on Ferrell, who's wearing a blood stained shirt and hooded sweatshirt while the pregnant lady watches from a distance. Fade to black and then the awesome title, "A Deadly Adoption" appears on screen, with the word deadly a bright color of red.

The craziest thing, amongst many crazy things about this, it looks like the actors are taking this very seriously. This doesn't look like a "Sharknado" type movie, where everyone is in on the joke. I think the only ones who are in on the joke are Wiig and Ferrell. These are two huge stars that have been the leads in big time productions. I commend the two of them for doing what looks to be a type of soap opera Lifetime movie. I wonder if they're looking at this like James Franco looked at his role on General Hospital. He is also a big star, who took a small, but weird and very memorable role as a criminal that's into art on the soap. He was incredible because he seemed to take it seriously, but was for sure in on the joke. I can only hope that Wiig and Ferrell take the same approach to their roles in this movie. If the trailer is true, that's exactly what the two of them are doing. I cannot believe I'm saying this, but I'm very excited to watch a movie on the Lifetime Network. I hope this is everything I'm expecting and wishing for, because, if this movie is half as good as the trailer, it's going to be EPIC.

Join me and tune in this Saturday, June 20th to Lifetime and watch the craziness that will be "A Deadly Adoption."

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for Seed Sing.  He was not even born when The Burning Bed came out. Follow him on twitter @tykulik