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Semi-Pro: Let's Get Sweaty Edition
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - New Line Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Pat Pilon (25th June 2008). |
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The Film
 Whenever I see a Will Ferrell-movie trailer, it usually says nothing to me. I rather find him silly and immature, but when I saw the trailer for 'Semi-Pro', I was inexplicably interested. The long and short of the movie is that this is an underdog sports movie with Will Ferrell. It's silly and rather immature, but I ended up enjoying it. Will Ferrell has this anything-for-a-laugh sense of humour, which occasionally results in some funny absurdist humour. The perfect example of this happens about halfway through the movie. After his pep talk, introducing new acquisition Monix (Woody Harrelson), he talks about a possum for reasons that I cannot even begin to imagine. By the same token, at one point in the movie, the entire team finds itself wearing bright, ridiculous-looking costumes of palm trees, prawns and suns. They're practicing for a half-time show, and the scene is an important one. Though the costumes (and Mr. Ferrell's acting) undercut the entire scene, it's something that fits in perfectly with the tone of the movie. For me, these types of non-sequitors get more laughs than any wanted setup. The movie follows the typical underdog sports movie, and there's honestly a bigger moral in 'The Mighty Ducks' than in here, but 'Semi-Pro' follows the conventions with precise timing. The obstacles come at the right time, and the winning streaks come at the right time. It's nothing special, and the only difference between this and a half-dozen other underdog movies is the presence of Will Ferrell. The movie also includes his fellow SNL alums Will Arnett, David Koechner and Tim Meadows, along with Rob Corddry, Andy Richter, André Benjamin, Maura Tierney and even Patti LaBelle. That's an impressive list for this kind of movie. Now that I've seen the movie, I got what I expected. It's nothing special, but I laughed despite myself, so it was worth watching. I figure that if Will Ferrell is your type of thing, then you'll enjoy this movie. Otherwise, stick with what you like because I have the impression that this is somewhat the same as the Will Ferrell movies I haven't seen. The disc includes both the theatrical edition and the unrated edition, the difference between them being about 7 minutes of footage. I'm not sure what the few extra minutes include, but I'm sure the footage includes some more racy stuff and probably a few characters moments.
Video
2.35:1 widescreen, using the VC-1 codec. New Line has always had very strong transfers and this one is the same. The level of detail is very strong, with close-ups looking very nice (which is one spot where New Line sometimes applies noise reduction). Fans in the darkness of the stadium are still visible, and their cheering arms wave together. The absurd colours are vivid and bright, showing great contrast without blooming. The skin tones are natural, and the black levels show nice shadow detail. The transfer is very strong and very sharp. I like this transfer.
Audio
As with other New Line titles, this movie comes with an English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1. This time, the track is somewhat wasted, as the movie is mostly talking and silly jokes. The music does come out very clearly, seeping into the surround speakers. The back speakers are pretty much forgotten, save for one or two moments (such as the bullet thing). The dialogue is loud and clear, with good volume levels. The range, given the track is lossless, could probably have a little bit of a wider, but for the movie, the track is more than enough. English and Spanish subtitles are provided for both the movie and all the bonus features on the second disc.
Extras
New Line filled this set with some very nice extras. There's a start-up trailer in the form of an anti-smoking ad (0:32) to start things off. Disc two has the rest of the extras. First is From the Cutting Room, which contains 2 sections. Deleted/Alternate Scenes has 'Dick Pepperfield Opening' (1:27), 'Monix Prologue' (1:58), 'Tropical Fever Dance' (0:54) and 'Alternate Ending: Where Are They Now?' (2:17). The best cut scene is probably the dance sequence. It's silly and absurd and pays off one of the jokes in the movie. The alternate ending is also very nice, seeing what happens to some of the characters. There are also three Improv bits: 'Dick and Lou' (1:39), with the two actors commenting on the cheerleaders, 'Tropics Weekly' (3:42), which are little scenes between Jackie and Dick before coming back before the commercial break and 'Andy, Amy and Will' (3:17), which are a few various bits here and there. These have some nice jokes, but only the best made it to the movie. The Behind the Scenes section has a bunch of featurettes. There are six featurettes in this section and all of them are very nicely done, and provide great information. 'A Short History of the ABA' (6:50) gives contextual information about the time period, with actual ABA players talking about the league and how it got started. They talk about the style of the game and the difference between the ABA and the NBA. (An interesting fact: the ABA brought the 3-point line to basketball.) 'Re-Creating the ABA' (12:46) has the filmmakers talking about recreating the 1970s, finding locations and building sets for the time period. '"Love Me Sexy" – The Story Behind the One-Hit Wonder' (5:24) is a funny look at how the song came to be. The director talks about getting the music producer and making the song. 'Bill Walton Visits the Set' (2:40) is a forgettable featurette, where the ex-ABA player visited the set. 'Four Days in Flint' (5:38) talks about the time they shot in Flint, and the director talks about his expectations and actual experience. Last is 'The Man Behind Semi-Pro' (23:56), which is more of a making-of featurette. It goes through the various cast and crew members, with various other cast and crew members talking about them. They talk more generally about making the movie and the nice time they had on set. The Promotions section has the "Love Me Sexy" Music Video (1:59). This is made up of scenes from the movie, so it’s not as absurd as it could have been. I honestly want to see Will Ferrell doing a real music video for this song. "Flint Tropics Hot Talk with Dick Pepperfield" imitates the feel of an old, used tape of the original broadcast from 1976 perfectly. The tape has demagnetised a bit and the colours are all washed out. It's fairly kitschy but pretty funny. There are two short videos, 'Ball Girls' (1:14) and 'Pancakes and Camels' (1:25), where they talk about two of the cheerleaders, and the promotional ideas for the upcoming season. There are also a few Trailers. There's the Teaser (0:46), the Trailer (2:28) and the Red-Band Trailer (1:49). They're nice, with the red-band trailer concentrating on the language quite a bit. The last thing I saw was the Super Agility Trainer game. It's a high-def exclusive bonus feature, and it's one of the funniest things on the disc. I won't spoil it for those of you who haven’t experienced it. I'll just say that it borders on the absurd and it took a weird sense of humour to add this in.
Overall
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