Perhaps Will Ferrell will one day follow-up on his performance in 2006's “Stranger Than Fiction,” a dramedy in which Ferrell successfully proved capable of carrying a film that didn't spoof the 1970s, NASCAR yokels or the male figure skating circuit.

“Semi-Pro,” however, is not that movie.

The film, which opens nationwide on Friday, Feb. 29, finds Ferrell taking on the American Basketball Association, circa 1976. Ferrell's Jackie Moon character is essentially the same character Ferrell has played so many times before, he of crude humor, manic screaming fits and never ending one-liners.

There is nothing new to be found in “Semi-Pro,” but damned if it isn't still funny.

Over the course of the 90-minute film, which co-stars Woody Harrelson, Outkast's Andre Benjamin and countless other notable names in minor roles, Ferrell and company keep the laughs coming, and thanks to an R rating, aren't restricted (no pun intended) in their comedic endeavors.

Jackie Moon is a former one-hit wonder who made some cash with a so-bad-it's-good song titled “Love Me Sexy.” With the proceeds from that single, he purchased the ABA's Flint Tropics and proceeded to make himself an owner/coach/starting power forward.

Thanks in part to the blubbery, unathletic Moon, not to mention the showboating Clarence Coffee Black (Benjamin) and English language-challenged Vakidis (Peter Cornell), the Tropics are the laughingstock of the league. But after it's announced that the top four teams from the ABA will merge with the NBA (the remaining teams will cease to exist), Ferrell trades for a former NBA benchwarmer (Harrelson), who takes over as a player/coach in guiding the Tropics to pseudo-relevance.

The plot, of course, is secondary, as audiences are paying money to see Ferrell and his crew of misfits dish out a barrage of zingers while the movie unfolds as a series of skits.

They will not be disappointed.

Will Arnett, Rob Corddry and San Antonio native Jackie Earle Haley shine in laugh-inducing bit parts, particularly Arnett as the Tropics' drunken, foul-mouthed color commentator. Harrelson and Benjamin help the film maintain some semblance of plot while Ferrell – as he often does – inserts himself into one hilariously preposterous situation after another.

And just as the jokes are starting to wane and “Semi-Pro” begins to tire, the Tropics face the first-place San Antonio Spurs (not a surprise, considering director/San Antonio native Kent Alterman is a diehard Spurs fan) in the inevitable final showdown, thus providing a few basketball scenes and humorous sendoffs before wrapping things up.

In viewing “Semi-Pro,” one in a long line of Ferrell spoof flicks, moviegoers may very well know what's coming. That doesn't mean, however, that they'll leave disappointed.

CLINT HALE | 210SA