"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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Timothy Simons is the Star in the Final Season of "Veep"

For the past 6 plus seasons of the show "Veep", currently airing its 7th and final season, I have been amazed at how funny and overall great the show is. It's dark and satirical and filthy and hilarious in all the right ways. My wife and I started late on the show, binge watching the first four seasons, and now watching in real time, and it has to be one of the best comedies to ever be on TV.

The performances on “Veep” are second to none. Julia Louis Dreyfuss is so wonderful, and so very deserving of all the awards she has won. She is gritty and angry and, probably, the filthiest one on the show. Her accolades are more than deserved. Matt Walsh, in a smaller role, is goofy and dumb and a total fish out of water, which I feel like is perfect for him. Tony Hale is tremendous as Selina's aid. He is a total whipping boy, who is the boorish son that Meyer never had. Sam Richardson was a great addition. I crack up every time he is on screen. Gary Cole is always consistent, and on "Veep", he adds so much greatness. Anna Chlumsky is as dirty as anyone, and her character Amy is at times insane, but other times, you feel for her. She really crushes this role. And even some of the people that are just side characters, actors like Patton Oswalt and Diedrach Bader and Andrea Savage, among others, are wonderful. But today I want to focus on the great, and I feel underrated at times, Timothy Simons.

Simons is a gem on the show. He plays Jonah Ryan, and each and every season, just when you don't think he can get any worse, or become more of a joke, he ups the ante. He started out as basically an intern on the show, and now, in the final season, he is running for president. I mean, it's insanely funny to see him mess up at every single turn, yet failing upward. It's funny, but also a little bit scary considering the day and age we live in now. Ryan has connections in the government, and that is the only way he has moved all the way up to a presidential candidate. And man, does Simons nail this. I find myself cracking up at him every time he is on screen. He is never not funny. Every word that comes out of his mouth is wrong and rude and crude and ignorant, and I find myself laughing, and then looking internally at America right now. Jonah Ryan would fit in perfectly in current Washington D.C.

But, "Veep" isn't making him look like a real politician, I feel like, in this final season, the writers and directors and Simons are trying to show the viewers how insane politics and D.C. truly are. The last episode of "Veep" was a great representation of Simons talent to play an ignorant moron. He uses words that no one nowadays should use, and he has to go to sensitivity training, where he is so much of an asshole he makes one of the workers there cuss him out. He also has a scene at a fair where he is, sorry mom and dad, deep throating corn dogs as a joke. He is married to his step sister, and constantly gets into fights with his step dad at rallies. There was a whole scene in the season premiere where women came out and said that they never dated him, and that anytime they went out with him, it was strictly business. He is such a creep that women don't want to be associated with him. His response to this was epic and hilarious.

Timothy Simons, at least so far, has been the star of this season. I am so excited to see what they do with his character and the people that he surrounds himself with. I know it is going to be great because this show is so great, and Simons is perfectly cast. But what makes his performance so much better is the fact that he is as liberal as myself or RD. He knows he is playing a ridiculous person, and totally runs with it. He is awesome, "Veep" is awesome and lets all hope that Jonah Ryan gets the crummy sendoff that he deserves. I really hope Simons gets recognized for some kind of awards come that season because he has totally earned it. He is one the best on a show filled with awesome actors and wild characters.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He was thinking of running for President in 2020. Then Ty realized that he would be like President Not Sure, the smartest man in Washington.

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Better Late Than Never on the Gem of Movie "Brigsby Bear"

I finally got around to seeing the movie "Brigsby Bear" yesterday. I have wanted to see this movies since I saw the first trailer for it over a year ago. I do not watch "SNL" anymore, but when I still watched it, the one person I always enjoyed was Kyle Mooney. He appealed to my weird comedy side. He was always doing something unique and different on the show, and 99 percent of it, I loved. My favorite character of his was the 90's standup that he played on "Weekend Update". He was so sad and wanted so much attention and tried so hard.

When I heard that he was writing a movie, and that The Lonely Island, Jorma Taccone, Akiva Schafer and Andy Samberg, and Phil Lord and Chris Miller were producing it, I was intrigued. I assumed it was going to be a bizarre comedy, which it has elements of. But "Brigsby Bear" was way different than I expected. I gathered from the trailer that it may be more of a moving and heartfelt movie, but I still expected mostly comedy. For the most part though, "Brigsby Bear" is a drama. It has so much more drama and kind of bleak moments than I expected. And, I loved every single second of the movie.

First, a short synopsis of the movie. Kyle Mooney plays James. He lives in a bubble of a home with his "folks", played by Mark Hammil, who was a delight, and Jane Adams. James watches a show every night called "Brigsby Bear", and the show teaches him life lessons and is the only thing he has ever seen. James loves it so much, he runs a message board solely based on each episode. His "folks" tell him he can't go outside because of the poisonous air, so he barely leaves his room. One night he decides to go outside and sit on a rooftop, and the police come. We find out that James was abducted 25 years ago as a baby. He gets returned to his real folks, Matt Walsh and Michaela Watkins. He also has a sister, played by Ryan Simpkins. They try their best to acclimate him to the real world. Remember, James has been in a bubble his entire life. James is an outcast. He is very odd. He only likes "Brigsby Bear".

James's father does take him to the movies, to try and give him a normal life, and this starts an idea in his head. He decides that he wants to make a Brigsby movie. Things further progress when his sister takes him to a high school party and he meets some people that want to help him. He also meets a detective, played by Greg Kinnear, who has always had a dream of acting. At first, things are going well. He is making friends and his movie is plugging along. Things take a turn for the worse when he makes a real explosive for his movie and the cops find it and arrest him. He is then sent to a psychiatric ward. He soon breaks out, his family comes to accept his love for Brigsby, and they help him finish the movie. He is welcomed at the theater to a hero's welcome.

I really, really like this movie. Kyle Mooney is the only person that I would have bought playing the role of James. He can pull off the weird loner better than anyone out there right now. He is truly amazing in this movie. I could not take my eyes off screen when he was on it, which was the entire movie. And while it does have moments of comedy, this movie is more about friendship, finding yourself, being accepted, coming to terms with a terrible tragedy and the love of a family. Hell, even though Hammil and Adams characters kidnapped him, he still felt love for them. They did a truly awful thing, but they were never awful to James. They truly did love him. Even after taking a life sentence for what they did, James visits his captors in jail to have him do some voices. He holds no real ill will towards them. Seeing Walsh and Watkins and Simpkins deal with this tragedy and accept for James for who he really is was wonderful. Walsh and Watkins are mainly comic actors, but they do nothing of the comedic variety in this movie. They are parents that lost their kid, got him back and are trying to make up for lost time. Simpkins, the reluctant sister, was great too. She acted like any teenager would, but when push came to shove, she loved, and missed, the brother she never knew she had. Kinnear was excellent as the detective that helped to find James, but also had an acting bug. His turn is so good and he was so good in this role.

I truly loved this story of friendship and family. I would be lying if I didn't say that I teared up a bit near the end. I hope that this means more things will come from Kyle Mooney. He found a very unique way to tell this story. He is the only person who can tell this type of story the way he did. "Brigsby Bear" also proves to me that The Lonely Island and Lord and Miller are only attaching their names to cool and different stuff, but stuff that works, stuff that finds its niche audience. I highly recommend people seek this movie out and watch it. It takes you places you don't expect, and that was great to see. I'm very glad that I saw, and now own, "Brigsby Bear". It is a very well done movie.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He is now inspired to make a movie of the television show that taught him how to be a good and compassionate person. Look out for Ty's "Saved By the Bell" film any day now.

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