* WARNING: This review may spoil the ending *

I felt this movie was a typical Will Ferrell movie – off the wall antics, some crude humor – but with a very good plot.  Will Ferrell is "Jackie Moon," the General Manager/Player/Coach of the "Flint Tropics" an American Basketball Association (ABA) team from Flint, Michigan from the 1970's before the ABA merged with the NBA.  Moon (Ferrell) also has a hit love song out titled, "Love Me Sexy," that he used the proceeds from in order to start the team and build the arena.         

The story starts off with the commissioner of the ABA letting the coaches and managers of the ABA teams know that the league is going to cease to exist at the end of the current season. The commissioner himself has been offered a position in the NBA.  The deal states that four teams from the ABA are going to be picked up into the NBA – the commissioner has already pre-determined which four.  The commissioner feels that Flint, Michigan is not a lucrative market for drawing in fans to games, so he has not picked them.  Instead he picks the Denver Nuggets, New Jersey Nets, San Antonio Spurs, and another team. 

Will Ferrell becomes classically irate with the decision and lays down a challenge: that the top 4 teams with the best records in the league are picked up into the NBA.  Uncooperatively the commissioner finally agrees as he is outnumbered by general managers that are voting for Will Ferrell's decision. 

The film then goes on following the Tropics season as they compete for fourth place.  The whole movie is filled with Will Ferrell doing funny, crazy things to try and drive fans to games to get the attendance up.  At one point he declares that he will wrestle a bear before the game in a cage.

Woody Harrelson comes in as a bench player from the Boston Celtics for the Tropics after Will Ferrell trades a washing machine for him. Having played for a championship Celtics team in the NBA a few years prior, Harrelson eventually gets Will Ferrell to agree to step down as head coach so that he can coach since he has more knowledge.  

In the end the commissioner goes back on his word and does not let "The Tropics" go to the ABA despite their fourth place finish.  However, Will Ferrell is offered a job in marketing and promotions for an NBA team because the ABA commissioner sees how well he has done with driving attendance to Flint. 

I really enjoy Will Ferrell movies with their humor and jokes.  I felt this movie had a bit too much language, but still had a good plot.  I enjoyed seeing how the team meshed together to get to fourth place.  They were a group of individuals starting out and eventually became a real team.  One criticism would be that the movie was a bit slow in developing the story.  But I think the humor made up for that.  A strong point would be that there was a great cast – many actors from Ferrell's past movies like "Anchor Man," "Blades of Glory," and "Old School."  Will Arnett from the show "Arrested Development" and the movie "Blades of Glory" is one of the play-by-play commentators in this movie as well. 

Daniel gives this movie a Matinee rating.

Full price= You gotta see this movie, if not you'll be sorry on Monday when your left out of the chat around the water cooler
Matinee= Pretty good, but I'd save the extra couple of bucks for a fast-food dollar menu after the movie
Rent it= Worth renting the DVD if you get ditched on a Friday night and all you have to hold is your cat fluffy
Dump it= Tell your worst enemy to go see it, chances are, they'll despise you more


*The film is rated "R" for language and some crude situations.  



All opinions expressed in this column are strictly the opinion of Daniel Olson.