Semi-Pro (2008)
Directed by Kent Alterman
Jackie Moon is the owner, promoter, coach, and star player of the Flint Michigan Tropics of the American Basketball Association (ABA), the worst team in the league. In 1976 before the ABA collapses, the NBA plans to merge with the best teams of the ABA at the end of the season. Only the top four teams will make the move and the worst teams will fold. If the Tropics want to make it to the NBA, Jackie Moon must rally his team and start winning.
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Based on some of the projects he has been responsible for helping to get off the ground (A History of Violence and Little Children), you’d think he know how to handle characterization or delivery a touch better.
There’s even a clever cameo from Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children) as a contest winner who can’t figure out what to do with his giant check.
The Tropics are the type of team that draw crowds in the tens, but consummate promoter Moon keeps the locals interested with contests like the $10,000 free throw (which, much to his consternation, local stoner Dukes (Jackie Earle Haley, "Little Children") actually pulls off) and choreographed half time entertainment featuring the Tropics in sea creature costumes.
Also a gas in smaller roles: Will Arnett as a smoking/drinking/swearing color commentator, Andrew Daly as his stiff partner and former Oscar nominee Jackie Earle Haley ("Little Children") as a shirtless white-trash fan.
And Harrelson does have a strong sports movie pedigree, having been in "White Men Can't Jump."
Why first-time director Kent Alterman didn’t make better use of Harrelson’s previous basketball experience (“White Men Can’t Jump,” anyone?) is beyond me, but it was definitely an opportunity wasted.
Movie geeks will appreciate the casting, as Harrelson, himself a semi-pro at playing benign lunatics in competitive sports (see White Men Can't Jump, Kingpin, Play It to the Bone) more or less invented the type that Ferrell has spent a career parodying.
The same cinephiles will note on their scorecard the presence of Woody Harrelson, 16 years after his prior B-ball gig as the white man in White Men Can't Jump.
To prove his point, he beefs up the team by trading a washing machine for an NBA benchwarmer named Monix (Woody Harrelson, last seen dribbling in "White Men Can't Jump"), who leads them on a winning streak.