Semi Pro

MikeRox

Didn't see a review for this, picked a couple of BDs up yesterday s heres a write up of Semi Pro

There's been a boom in turning sports into comedies of late, though mainly it's been more obscure sports that have been focussed on (see Dodgeball, Balls of Fury, Blades of Glory etc.) we have had a few mainstream sports such as NASCAR covered as well with Talladega Nights, and one of the main actors involved in these has been Will Ferrel.

Well he's at it again, this time with Basketball (only for the obscure part, it's about the ABA rather than NBA and set back in the 70s so all the cool attire etc in included)

Ferrel plays Jackie Moon, owner of The Tropics, the worst basketball team in the ABA. Driven by the news that the ABA is merging with the NBA and only the top 4 teams are going through, Jackie tries his best to turn not just the teams fortunes around, but attendance etc with some off shoot promotions etc (you have to see it to understand really as I'm terrible at explaining things ) so that they can make it into the NBA.

I actually have to say, this is one of the few films with comments such as "riotous fun" and "funking brilliant!" that is actually worth of the descriptions. This is one film thats well worth watching if you enjoy this strange what has to now be sub genre of comedy.

As well as the theatrical version of the film (at around 90 minutes) there is also the "Let's get Sweaty Unrated Edition" which has an extra 10 minutes of content. The latter is the one I watched, though i was the first time I've seen the film and there certainly didn't feel to be any unnecessary bumf you usually get in extended versions.

The Film itself has been presented in the original theatrical aspect ratio 2.35:1 and for the Entertainment in Video release at least, sports a 7.1 DTS HD audio track. The picture is absolutely fantastic and the picture just jumps right out at you. It's sharp, clean, crisp and bright. It might not be the best high def image, but it's certainly up there in the higher echelons.

Audiowise, 7.1 DTS HD can't really say much more tbh.

There is a second disc with extra features on, though I can't review these for you as the store I got the film from have knackered up removing the alarm tag and I can't actually get the 2nd disc out of the case , so I'll go back to the store to try and sort that next week.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the film, I was in two minds when I bought it, as it's one of those where the whole take a sport and make a 90 min comedy about it should be (and for the most part is) getting stale, however, the inspired characters, setting and "Phoenix Nights" style atmosphere of it all makes it work far better than I expected it to. Definitely worth at least a rental in my opinion!

Film: 3.5/5
PQ: 4.5/5
AQ: 4/5
Features: N/A
Overall 4/5

*Phoenix Nights is a fantastic British comedy and if you havn't heard of it, I demand you find a way of watching it somewhere!!!

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