Semi Pro review

So I saw the new Will Ferrell movie Semi Pro the other day and thought I’d write about it.

First off, I liked Anchorman. I know a lot of people didn’t so I’ll try to explain why I liked it.

One thing is I hadn’t seen much of Ferrell before so his kind of humour was pretty fresh to me.

I also love the whole gleeful childish idiocy of the film, it has no real purpose except to make you laugh. People don’t learn lessons or grow or become better people. Ron Burgundy has the mentality of a spoilt 5 year old throughout. I don’t know, it’s always hard to explain why you find something funny, I don’t think Anchorman is a great movie or anything, just hilarious.

Anyway this is a different film, some bits were pretty funny, if you like it you like it fair enough. I’ll just write about some possibly interesting things that I thought about it.

First, this isn’t a movie trying to be Anchorman. Yeah a lot of humour is similar but the director seems to be doing a different thing. More effort is put into making the film look good, and it does look better but is that important in a comedy film?

Now, since Will Ferrell plays pretty much the same character in a lot of movies, child in mans body type, this makes it difficult to write a film with him as the main character. He’s basically a cartoon character which makes it difficult if you want to show mature adult relationships and stuff.

So what they’ve done is brought Woody Harrelson is in the movie as the other lead. I think they do a pretty good job of this, the film doesn’t feel unbalanced and it works.

Harrelsons storyline also brings up a problem. He’s back in town to play for the team but really because he wants to get back with his ex. You see he used to be a real asshole and he cheated on her and stuff, but now he’s learned his lesson and become a better person and she’s the woman for him. That’s all well and good but then you reach the problem, see she’s already with a guy and they live together in a seemingly happy relationship.

Now no one really sympathizes with a guy stealing another guys lady, so usually in films they make the boyfriend out to be a real asshole, then you want them to get together. That or they just kind of ignore it and you’re left wondering afterwards.

What this film did is different, they made the boyfriend out to be a complete moron who loves Harrelsons character and seems completely oblivious to the fact that his hero wants his girlfriend.

So part of you thinks, if this guy’s to stupid to realise what’s going on then he deserves what he gets.

Then they have a scene where Harrelson tricks him into leaving so he can get with the girl. Only problem is the boyfriend forgets something and when he comes back he catches the other two having sex.

The joke is that he loves Harrelson so much that he gets really into it and starts masturbating, they do a similar thing at the end of the film just so you know the guy’s fine.

So basically what they did is, instead of making the guy an asshole, they made him into a kind of person who doesn’t exist in reality. Harrelson steals another guy’s girl but the other guy isn’t really a human so it’s ok.

There was also a scene which I thought was the best part of the movie and I’ll write about it now.

The guys, Ferrell and teammates, are having a game of poker. They’re being manly, insulting each other and stuff, until one guy takes it too far and calls someone else a Jive Turkey. The joke is that this is completely unacceptable, it’s ok to call him a cock sucker or whatever but jive turkey crosses the line. Nowadays no one cares about people calling people jive turkeys, ha ha things were different in the seventies it’s a joke.

So the guy he’s insulted pulls a revolver on him and it’s really tense, eventually he reveals the gun’s empty and everyone laughs and relaxes. Of course having gone through all that stuff they are acting a little crazy, they pass the gun around, say what they really feel about each other and pull the trigger, laughing all the time.

Now what’s funny here is the way they’re acting, what they’re saying to each other, but also, most importantly, the audience knows something’s going to happen with that revolver.

So after five empty chambers Ferrell has the gun, and if you’ve been counting you know this chamber has to have a bullet, and eventually he shoots his crotch, no bullet, and the future children of his character breath a sigh of relief, but the audience is a bit annoyed, until he throws the gun on the table where it shoots a bullet which eventually hits his friend, the guy who called the other guy a jive turkey.

So you have the build up of tension, then the release, then the building up of a subtler tension (which plays on the audiences expectations of cinema convention) before another release, and then the punchline, all interspersed with different jokes. That’s a good funny scene.

Another scene I enjoyed was one I really didn’t think I would. Basically it’s a scene where Ferrell pukes. Ok so ‘gross out’ comedy has pretty much been done, often badly, but this one realises that it’s not seeing the character vomit that’s funny, it’s how it happens. This one really goes to extreme ridiculous lengths and I though it was very funny, but, It doesn’t actually show Ferrell puke, the humour is all in the build up.

This is a good way to do a scene where you want to show something bizzare or horrible. Think of the ear cutting scene in Resevoir Dogs or The Blair Witch Project, the director sets the mood and expectations but leaves the ‘climax’ to the audiences imagination. Once you build it up enough your job is done, whatever you show after that can’t compete with what the audience will imagine.

I think that’s also the main reason the new Star Wars films were hated.