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In 1976 Michigan, American Basketball Association player/coach/owner/halftime entertainer Jackie Moon (Will Ferrell) works to motivate his Flint Tropics team into at least fourth place, since the top four teams in the league will move to the NBA at the end of the year. Also starring are Will Arnett, Andre Benjamin and Woody Harrelson as an ex-NBA player periodically trying to win back the heart of his ex (Maura Tierney).

Big question: Can the writer of junk like "The Heartbreak Kid" and "School for Scoundrels" make Ferrell's latest piece of sports-related ridiculousness as funny as the surprisingly hilarious "Blades of Glory"?

Skip it: Devoted Ferrell fans may consider any movie he's in automatically half-full, but "Semi-Pro" was clearly devised not as a legitimate comedic idea but a series of shenanigans--a priest refs a game, Jackie wrestles a bear and sings a song called "Love Me Sexy," etc.--fashioned around a movie about whatever. First Jackie does this stupid thing, then he says that stupid thing, and the typically intermittent laughs aren't enough to pump up something so lazy and airless.

Catch it: To learn that, as it turns out, promotions like Dime Beer Night and Free Gerbil Night are likely to backfire. Take notice, actual NBA franchises!

Bottom line: Everything about it is semi: semi-funny, semi-idiotic and semi-conceived after a long night of Bud Lights and viewings of "Talladega Nights." A Pong reference and Jackson 5 joke are the only efforts to take advantage of the period--a shot at Michael Jackson, there's something fresh--and Ferrell, while sporadically amusing, has officially transitioned from actor to court jester.

Bonus: Anyone who enjoyed the sexism of "Anchorman" may love "Semi-Pro," which gives zero lines to the Tropics' cheerleaders, refers to all wives and girlfriends as sexual objects and allows Lynn (Tierney) little opinion of her own. If only the women's rights movement had begun before the '70s!

Video: Watch the review of 'Semi-Pro'

What do you think of 'Semi-Pro'? Email me: mpais@tribune.com

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