Semi-Pro
New Line Cinema | Release Date: February 29, 2008 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
47
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
15
Negative:
6
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Semi-Pro is so shabbily staged, shot and edited that it hardly ranks as a movie, much less a sports film, but hilarious people keep turning up in it. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
None of Ferrell's movies have ever really done justice to the best of his "Saturday Night Live" work, but those of us who love his comedy have learned to take the good with the bad. Read full review
75
PremiereChris Willard
Ultimately, we don't purchase tickets to Will Ferrell movies for their sweeping romantic storylines, but because he makes us laugh. And Semi-Pro offers plenty of reasons to do so. Read full review
70
VarietyJoe 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 TimesMatt Zoller Seitz
Semi-Pro finds the sweet spot between sports melodrama and parody, and hammers it for 90 diverting minutes. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Definitely more than semi-funny. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter 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
Boston GlobeTy 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
60
Village VoiceRobert Wilonsky
What at least distinguishes Semi-Pro from its predecessors (not only those starring Ferrell, but also such lesser lights as "Dodgeball" and "Balls of Fury") is that it's a slightly darker movie--one made for grown-ups, hence the R rating. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterKirk 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 TimesKevin 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
58
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Deserves credit for attempting something more emotional and dramatic than the typical Ferrell gagfest, but Harrelson and Benjamin's earnest subplots cost the film comic momentum and big laughs without adding much in return. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Instead of a satire, they give us a tired, tedious victory-for-the-underdog story, and the unevenness of Ferrell's comedy makes it less appealing. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
The humor is mostly visual -- 70s relics like Pong, Shasta and men's platform shoes compete with the sight of Ferrell squeezed into tube socks and short shorts. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Come to think of it, Ferrell is to the sports comedy what the Toronto Maple Leafs are to the hockey biz: Hard-core fans are sure to show up and find reasons to be amused. The rest of us can only hope for better days. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
The laughs do come, but not as readily, not as heartily and not as joyfully as you might expect. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Mildly diverting and utterly dispensable. Read full review
50
NewsweekDavid Ansen
The semifunny Semi-Pro is amiable enough, but you never feel there's much at stake. Read full review
42
Seattle Post-IntelligencerAndy Spletzer
Semi-Pro is the perfect name for this movie, because it feels like a half-baked comedy made by semi-professionals. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyLisa 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 PostDesson 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
40
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
There's no real reason it should be set in the 70s, except that the freaky wigs, loud clothes, and wall-to-wall soul classics are needed to bolster the nothing script. Read full review
40
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
As Ferrell’s films go, Semi-Pro is, honestly, pretty damn boring. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
The court scenes are rarely funny, either in the trash talk or the slapstick. Read full review
38
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Just Will Ferrell doing the same man-boy shtick he usually does. Read full review
38
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
For die-hard Ferrell fans, this could be the ultimate test. He has been playing variations of "Elf" for five years, and his antics have grown as stale as Jackie's socks. Read full review
30
SalonStephanie Zacharek
This may be one of the most sluggish sports comedies ever made -- even the supposedly rousing final sequence feels belabored and chubby. Read full review
25
New York PostKyle Smith
Goes up for the dunk and misses the hoop, the backboard and the point. Instead, it manages to both strike out and get sacked. Whose idea was it to remake "Slap Shot" a la Jerry Lewis? Read full review
20
Austin ChronicleJosh Rosenblatt
But basketball … basketball doesn’t deserve the Ferrell treatment. Basketball is a sport of kings, a thing of beauty and elegance, America’s game. Which doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be mocked but that if it must be mocked it deserves to be mocked well, and Semi-Pro, unfortunately, isn’t up to the challenge. Read full review
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