Man-child Will Ferrell playing an unconventional sportsman and  lame lothario may not sound like the most original movie description, but it’s a case of 'if it ain’t broke don’t fix it,' with new movie Semi-Pro.

He attempts to bludgeon the audience into laughter by sheer force of personality. Petulant rants, violent tantrums and hysterical outbursts are what he’s good at and they are here in good measure. Ferrell fans will be delighted, but we can’t help feel we’ve seen this character before.

Semi-Pro opened in the USA with figures of $15 million sales. Other films would kill for opening figures like that, but Will Ferrell's last two outing made considerably more. Talladega Nights made $47 million and Blades of Glory made $33 million. It suggests a sliding stock, perhaps it’s a case of the public tiring of the similar Will Ferrell shtick. That doesn’t mean Semi-Pro isn't funny, though.

Set in 1976 as a minor-league basketball team in Flint, Michigan, run by Ferrell’s owner-player-coach Jackie Moon, attempts to upgrade to the majors.  And it follows the team’s transformation from no hope, no fans to sporting heroes. They play in the ABA and only four teams will get promoted to the NBA – and Ferrell will do anything to ensure they get there.

The setting is classical 70s and Ferrell goes overboard with the bushy hairdos and psychedelic suits which look like there’s been an explosion in a fancy dress store. Jackie Moon’s Love Me Sexy provides a constant backing heartbeat to the film and it can’t help but give you the loving funky feeling.

The best part of Ferrell films is the entourage he brings along. As always this film has an all-star cast. Unusually though, it's not the names you would expect that bring the laughs. Woody Harrelson plays Ed Monieux the fallen idol looking for one last season, but fails to recapture his Kingpin form, whilst OutKast’s Andre Benjamin adds the 'razzle' but without any real comedy.

Andrew Daly (Dick Pepperfield) and Will Arnett (Lou Redwood) prop up a lot of the film with their sharp dialogue and disrespectful banter. The fact the two sports commentators provide the best laughs perhaps suggesting Ferrell’s best stuff (Anchorman) is best delivered in sharp one-line commentary.

Tim Meadows isn’t in the film much, but its no coincidence he’s in one of the funniest parts of the film. A hilarious Russian roulette scene around the poker table.

Semi-Pro is as anarchic, preposterous and ridiculous as the previous Ferrell films. If crazy catch lines; “It’s like the Titanic only with bears,” and childish behaviour (Ferrell asking for the ball on court 15 times and then passing it backwards every time) are what you want then you won’t be disappointed. If, however, you’re expecting a subtly clever new Ferrell comedy, you won’t find it here.

[story by Edward Marsh] 

By now you all probably know about new Will Ferrell movie Semi-Pro thanks to all the talk show appearances, semi-ironic product advertising and constant TV trailers.

Thing is, though, it seems you know so much about Semi-Pro from all of this that none of you bothered to actually go and see the thing.

Although Semi-Pro is the US weekend box office number one, it only managed to scrape together a meagre $15,200,000 – roughly a tenth that Spider-Man 3 made in the same amount of time. Does Semi-Pro's relative failure mean that the public is getting sick of Will Ferrell sports comedies? Well, yes. Plainly it does. Can't you people read?

You know what you're getting when Will Ferrell makes a film. You're going to get at least two of the following – 1) an ironic 1970s setting, 2) a tired sports theme and 3) giant belly laughs. But it seems with Semi-Pro, you only got the first two. Even though it's number one at the weekend box office, Semi-Pro opened three times worse than Talladega Nights and twice as bad as Blades Of Glory. And even less than Meet The Spartans. That's all the criticism it needs. Here's the US weekend box office top five…

1 - Semi Pro (So the wheels have finally come off the Will Ferrell sports movie wagon. Although in the long-term that might push Will Ferrell to make more interesting stuff like Stranger Than Fiction, it spells disaster for the upcoming Untitled Will Ferrell Snooker Project, Untitled Will Ferrell Darts Project and Untitled Will Ferrell Unicycle Hockey Project) $15,200,000

2 – Vantage Point (Vantage Point really missed a trick, you know. Instead of showing a murder from multiple viewpoints, it could have just shown it from one and saved everyone from wasting an hour and a quarter of everyone's lives) $13,000,000

3 - The Spiderwick Chronicles (We're still steadfastly refusing to look up what The Spiderwick Chronicles is actually about but, since it's been in the weekend box office for three whole weeks now, we're almost completely certain that it's not a Will Ferrell sports movie) $8,752,000

4 - The Other Boleyn Girl (Seriously, our world is turning upside down this week. It's not just ironic Will Ferrell advertising spots that are stopping movies from doing well this week, it's lesbian kisses between Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman too. What's going on? We're scared) $8,300,000

5 - Jumper (Finally, some normality. Jumper continues to lose huge amounts of viewers week after week. Thank God for shitty-looking action films!) $7,600,000

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Weekend Box Office - Box Office Mojo