Semi-ProMovie Reviews

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Avg. Critic Score: 47 out of 100 Mixed or average reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
15 Iffy for 15+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 70
    Variety | Joe Leydon

    Very much in the tradition of "Slap Shot," George Roy Hill's raucously funny and foul-mouthed 1977 laffer about the misadventures of a minor-league hockey team, Semi-Pro scores big laughs with the rowdy play-by-play of hard-luck hoopsters struggling for professional survival. Read full review

  • 70
    The New York Times |

    Semi-Pro finds the sweet spot between sports melodrama and parody, and hammers it for 90 diverting minutes. Read full review

  • 63
    Boston Globe | Ty Burr

    The problem with Semi-Pro is that it keeps forgetting it's a parody of sports movies; the final scenes are supposed to be uplifting (sort of) but they're not fooling anyone. The film's much better when it just lets the guys gas and sass each other. Read full review

  • 63
    Rolling Stone | Peter Travers

    Critics will score Semi-Pro on its missed shots. My guess is that audiences will do what they always do with Ferrell: remember when he killed them laughing. Read full review

  • 63
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    Definitely more than semi-funny. Read full review

  • 60
    The Hollywood Reporter | Kirk Honeycutt

    The comedy is sloppy, crude and contains far too many misfires, but the film does capture the old ABA spirit in its ungainly struggles to wrestle laughs from seriously mediocre material. Read full review

  • 60
    Los Angeles Times | Kevin Crust

    Harrelson and Maura Tierney, who plays Monix's love interest, seem to be inhabiting a different, more interesting, movie, one that follows the familiar path of a has-been athlete seeking redemption at what looks like his last stop. The strange thing is that the subplot is so tangential to the rest of the movie that the scenes could be omitted with no one the wiser. Read full review

  • 50
    San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle

    The laughs do come, but not as readily, not as heartily and not as joyfully as you might expect. Read full review

  • 42
    Entertainment Weekly | Lisa Schwarzbaum

    The big goofball relies too much on the funny hair and swingin' postures of the era as punchlines in themselves. Read full review

  • 40
    Washington Post | Desson Thomson

    Andre Benjamin, Woody Harrelson, Maura Tierney and David Koechner -- all talented -- seem amazingly zombie-like here. And Jackie Earle Haley, as a stoner fan of the Tropics, is more disconcerting than funny. Read full review

View more reviews for Semi-Pro on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 15+ No huge laughs in Ferrell's foul-mouthed comedy.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that lots of kids are huge fans of Will Ferrell comedies, particularly the goofy sports ones. This one has more strong language than some of Ferrell's other movies (nearly every scene includes some creative use of "f--k" and its many derivatives), as well as the requisite sex jokes (including one sex scene between a mostly dressed couple) and outrageous behavior (fighting a bear to promote a basketball game). There's also an aggressive off-screen promotion in which Ferrell's character pitches Old Spice and Bud Light in commercials.
  • Families can talk about whether this comedy follows the Hollywood formula for sports movies. Despite the raunchy jokes, isn't this more or less a typical underdog story? What is Monix's message about professional sports? To him, is it more important to be an NBA hotshot or to love playing basketball? Why do you think this movie got an R rating, while many of Ferrell's other sports comedies have been PG-13? Is it just the strong language? Does swearing make a movie funnier, or is it distracting?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: Male characters drink, smoke, and joke about women as sexual objects. But Monix proves that the love of a sport and playing unselfishly is more important than fame or personal glory.
What to watch for
  • violence false3 Violence: A few scenes of the Tropics getting into fights with other teams. A bear runs loose and attacks a couple of people, but in a humorous way. There's also an extended gun-play scene where characters take turns pointing and shooting what they think is an unloaded handgun at each other.
  • sex false3 Sex: Monix discusses cheating on his ex-girlfriend with two girls in one night. Monix and Lynn have sex (mostly dressed) on a couch. When Lynn's significant other catches them, he's unexpectedly aroused; he sits down to watch and then unbuckles his belt (masturbation is implied, but not shown). Jackie tells the Tropics cheerleaders he wishes he had slept with some of them. Jackie tells the audience a player is proudly "VD free." Someone is called a "boner machine."
  • language false5 Language: Nearly every sentence includes "f--k" or a derivative (including the one that starts with "mother"). Other words said very often include "c--k," "c--ksucker," "ass," "a--hole," "s--t," "d--k," "bitch," etc.
  • consumerism false3 Consumerism: Not that much in the movie: Cadillac, the ABA, and the NBA. But in real life, Ferrell's character is endorsing products like Bud Light and Old Spice.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Characters are shown smoking and drinking in many, many scenes. Most of the alcohol is hard liquor, with a few beers thrown in the mix. One fan who's called a "dirty hippie" looks high.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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Dave White

1.0

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Ferrell's usual moronic, ego-mad man-child thing. Read full review See Dave White's on MOVIENAME on Movies.com

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