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Semi-Pro | 2008 | R | - 6.4.7
Will Ferrell stars as a man who becomes the owner, coach and one of the players of a second-rate ABA basketball team, but has dreams of being in the NBA. But then he finds out that while the team is going to be sold to the NBA, it is to be dissolved unless it can turn the season around and make it to 4th place. Also with Woody Harrelson, Andre 'Andre 3000' Benjamin, Jay Phillips, Will Arnett, Josh Braaten, Rob Corddry, DeRay Davis, Maura Tierney, Collette Wolfe and Andy Richter. Directed by Kent Alterman. [1:30]
SEX/NUDITY 6 - A man enters a room and hears a woman moaning, and sees her straddling a man reclined on a sofa and thrusting on top of him (they are both moaning and we see their bare thighs); the man sits at a table in the next room and watches the couple having sex, unzips his pants under the table (presumably to stimulate himself), the woman sees him, yells and the scene ends.
► A man caresses a woman's clothed thighs and then tries to kiss the back of her neck (they are interrupted by other men entering the room). Two women seated on either side of a man caress his arms and swoon over him.
► We see a photo of a nude man reclining with a basketball covering his genitals. Women dressed in bikinis dance at basketball games in several scenes. A man is shown bare-chested. A woman wears a low-cut top that reveals cleavage. Women wear low-cut tops and dresses that reveal cleavage in a few club scenes. A man wearing basketball shorts squats and thrusts before throwing a ball and the camera shoots up toward his groin (we see part of his upper thigh and his underwear).
► A man tells another man that they should go find women to have sex with, using crude terms. A man makes a crude sexual remark about another man's mother and sister. We hear a man singing a song with lyrics that include "love me sexy" along with other sexual references. There are several references to watching pornographic movies. A man makes a comment about self-gratification. Several men talk about having oral sex performed on them. Two men make comments about cheerleaders and their skimpy costumes. A man says that watching a play in a basketball game made aroused him. A man says of another man that he has "no VD" and that "You could be the one to give it to him." A man makes a remark to a woman that we think is a sexual proposition until we see her working on his injured knee. Two men talk about the wife of another man and the size of her breasts. Two men discuss the endowment of another man.
► Men and women dance in several nightclub scenes.
VIOLENCE/GORE 4 - A man holds a gun to a man's face (he does not pull the trigger).
► Several men hold a gun and pull the trigger as a joke (no bullets discharge), the gun is tossed onto a table and it fires, the men flinch as the bullet ricochets through the room and one man has blood on the cast on his arm where the bullet struck.
► A man stands in a cage with a brown bear, he strikes the bear in the face several times, the bear lunges at him and they wrestle: it looks like the bear is biting the man, and he has bloody scratches on his face and chest later, the bear gets out of the cage and people in a stadium panic and run. A bear leaps at and tackles a man (pushing him off-screen); this happens again in another scene.
► Two teams of men fight on a basketball court with punches and kicks: one man strikes another in the head with a shoe, punches him in the face, stomach and kidney area, and one man is struck in the head with a telephone receiver (we hear grunts and groans and thuds, but no blood).
► A man is knocked unconscious during a basketball game and carried off the court (he comes around and is OK). A man slaps another man in the face twice.
► A man yells, holds his face and collapses to the floor when, due to sweating, eyeliner drips into his eyes and burns (other men suffer from the same thing, and fall to the floor and flail).
► A man kicks the window of a police car and it breaks (he is arrested by the officers who are in the car). A man slams a chair into a conference table a couple of times when he becomes angry, and he yells and bites his own hand. As a celebration people throw bottles against a building, shattering them, and we see police officers overturning their own car.
► A man wearing roller skates rolls down a ramp and jumps over several women lying on the floor; he crashes down on top of the last woman (we hear a thud but no one is injured).
► A man yells at another man and threatens to murder his family. A man yells at another man and threatens him with physical violence. A woman tells a man that she cannot love him because he hates himself too much. A man makes reference to "Bambi" and that Bambi's mother got shot. There are several scenes where people talk about vomiting.
► We see several men leaning over toilets and hear loud gagging. A man says he has never vomited, another man punches him in the stomach, he gags, we hear loud rumbling, and he wretches on the man who punched him (no goo is shown). A man gags a couple of times but does not vomit. A man lies in a dumpster covered with food and goo, and he says, "I urinated on myself"; he then picks up a discolored pancake from the garbage and eats it. A man grabs food out of another man's hand, spills it on the floor and then kicks a bag of food (we see food splatter on the floor).
LANGUAGE 7 - 20 F-words, 31 sexual references, 26 scatological terms, 31 anatomical terms, 19 mild obscenities, name-calling (retard, chick, dirty hippie, idiot, jive turkey, dumb), 12 references to vomit, 5 religious profanities, 7 religious exclamations.
SUBSTANCE USE - Men drink alcohol while playing cards, people are shown drinking alcohol in several club scenes, a man drinks alcohol in a bar, a man drinks a beer, and a man smokes cigarettes and drinks alcohol while announcing basketball games.
DISCUSSION TOPICS - The 1970s, professional sports, semi-professional sports, guilt, pride, infidelity, destiny, publicity stunts, dreams, motivation, coaching, death of a parent.
MESSAGE - Pro sports are all about the money and not so much about the love of the game.
CAVEATS
Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.
We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.
Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.
Heretic - 3.6.3
Conclave - 1.2.2
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