Yawn....this seems all to familiar
595798
'Semi-Pro is the latest Will Farrell film, in which he plays Jackie Moon, the owner, coach and power forward of the fictional Flint Tropics basketball team in the American Basketball Association (ABA). He was also a disco singer who had one hit, called 'Love Me Sexy' and he insists on playing the song to death throughout the movie. Anyways, the Flint Tropics happen to be the worst team in the ABA (sound familiar yet?), mostly due to Jackie's lack of direction. It is soon revealed that the ABA will cease to exist and only 4 teams will be merged into the National Basketball Association (NBA). When Jackie finds out that his team will not be integrated into the NBA, he attempts to whip his team into shape. With the help of former Kentucky Colonels player Ed Monix (Woody Harrelson), Jackie plans to push the Tropics to victory, and into the NBA.

What follows is your typical heartfelt, underdog sports story (with the Will Farrell brand of comedy of course). If you've ever seen 'Blades of Glory' or 'Dodgeball' or any of the other numerous underdog sports films then you know exactly how this film will turn out. The ending doesn't turn out exactly as the aforementioned films do, but there are enough similarities in this movie that its hard not to draw comparisons. The jokes run the usual gamot, with potty, genital and sexual jokes being at the forefront. To be quite honest most of the jokes feel way too outdated to be funny; I seem to remember similar punch lines in Farrell's previous outings. Farrel gives the impression that he is merely giving us a phoned in performance, but being that he's been making the same movies since Anchorman I don't blame him. The supporting actors are decent, though nothing really stands out aside from Andre 3000, who seems to be getter better at acting. Even Harrelson seems like he's nonplussed to be appearing in this mediocre film, and his performance reeks of lazy. Will Arnett (Arrested Development) plays an alcoholic sports play by play announcer, however he feels rather underused here. Every single joke he throws out is un-funny.

I watched this movie not expecting to enjoy it, and honestly there wasn't really a funny joke to be found. Will Farrell, one of the more successful of the SNL alumni has found his niche and he is running with it no matter how atrocious and stale the end result may be. He just keeps pumping out the same jokes and the same routine over and over, and we keep eating it up. If you are a Farrell fan then purchasing this film is probably a no-brainer, but if you are sick of his usual shtick like I am you may just want to rent this one.

As far as this Blu Ray edition is concerned, the theatrical cut and the 'Lets get sweaty' unrated cut are featured on one disc, while a second disc houses a load of special features. The differences between the two versions of the film are negligible.  The special features are your usual  comedy special feature fare, nothing too great.

The picture quality is decent; 'Semi-Pro' isn't going to turn any heads but its a step above the Standard DVD. Colors are rather vivid and blacks  are deep and realistic. Detail is present but very inconsistent, and there is a fair bit of grain spiking in some scenes. Since this is a comedy with rather bland 70's colors I didn't except demo material, but 'Semi-pro' looks pretty good. As far as the audio is concerned, 'Semi-Pro' comes with a 7.1 mix, though the subject material never fully utilizes it.

I'm sure this isn't the last of the 'underdog' films, and certainly not the last Ferrell underdog film. I really wish it was, because these movies are getting really tiresome.

Movie Quality - 2/5
Picture Quality - 4/5
Audio Quality - 3/5
Special Features - 1/5
4265239
Bigfoot Yawns.....  predictable.  College students, nudity, camping, big hairy monster.  Nothing to get excited about.
2076118
This isn't a bad read and it pretty much mirrors the blurb, and whilst yes, I do know that Adam had issues and was closeted, I found myself asking why the other guy was so desperate that he kept coming back rejection after rejection. Adam was a butt more than once and kept apologising and seeming really sorry, but I got fed up with the same thing, how he flew off the handle so repeatedly and over things trivial and basically got fed up over the, 'haven't we just seen that?' scenario.

As for the setting, again, yes I get that it's in a complex where people seem decent and seem to deserve a chance, but come on, this wasn't like real life but like one of those syrupy sweet Bollywood movie endings where you end up rolling your eyes going, 'yeah, right'.

I kind of think this has been over-hyped, and more than a little.
4566824
Not really original. The core of this story has been taken from a tale that already existed and has gone around the internet for many years before this book was published. The fact that the author even named the book the same as the phrase people would tap into google is absurd. Sure, I can understand him hearing or reading about The Man from Taured story which was based in, 1954 with the airport in Tokyo (not O Hare the only change he made) and then being inspired to create a story that is similar but to use the same title, and core of the story is just like asking for trouble. It almost seems like a cheap way to get people into his books by naming them the title of what people would look for. Sure, he's expanded upon the original tale but that's like taking the story of Little Red Riding Hood and pretending you came up with the idea and expanding it beyond the story that exists. The problem here is had this just been fan fiction that was free on a website there would be no issue but that he's trying to sell it off as his own original idea is what makes it not right. It borders on plagiarism. There should be a disclaimer in the description that says it's based on a story that has already been told.
3535418
I'm getting to the point where I'm starting to think I should just quit reading Crichton's books.  "Prey" was OK; "State of Fear" was pretty dreadful.  Thankfully, those and this book are the only ones I've read so far.  I'm not even going to touch "Next," from what I've heard.  I picked up this early book of his, hoping maybe it'd be different.  But no -- it's the same old cardboard characters whose quirks are told to us rather than shown (did he never attend even one writing workshop?).  The same old making science into an image that fits the plot, bending facts at will and just making some up (eg, having the guys swim open-eyed through some mysterious disinfectant, like that's going to get all the bacteria...).  The same old blunt-force foreshadowing.  The same old lecturing and moralizing.  Ugh.  The one saving grace was that it was a fast read.
4062189
The author must have been paid by the word. The book, which I'm only about half way through, is entirely too verbose, repetitive and full of minutiae. On the bright side, it is an excellent sleep inducer.
1435147
As one reviewer stated that it is like an "elderly relative" recalling stories - only if that person is completely scatterbrained.  The writer jumps from story to story with little or no connection and without a central theme or purpose. Yet there has got to be a hundred plus names of persons who often appear once and then are never heard from again.  Its like listening to an old timer who is rambling on and on and you keep looking at the clock wondering if a enough time has passed before you can politely say "Well...look at the time....gotta go"
4853726
First, I will not show as a verified purchaser.  I buy most of my books at a church "rummage sale".
With that said, I am an avid reader of mysteries of various types.  This author seemed well reviewed, so I bought two of his books (at $1 each)  I like finding new authors.  Sometimes it works out very well, sometimes not so well.  For me, Beyond Recall was in the latter category.  I will usually keep reading any book I get, thinking that if I do not like the beginning, I may begin to like it more as I plow through it.  But I just could not do that with Beyond Recall.  It was just incredibly slow and I gave up on it at about page 60.  60 pages that were nothing if not inconsequential and boring.  All I seemed to learn in those 60 pages were that there was a family squabble about who inherited what from a long ago relative.  Yawn.  And Yawn again.

I rarely give up on a book and read them to the end.  I just could not read more than about 10 pages of this drivel at a time.  Each time I picked it up, it felt like masochism on my part.  I try to be a bit "generous" in my reviews, but I just cannot give this a decent rating.  I count on Amazon reviews to help guide my decisions and have to be honest in my own opinions.
3397529
This book should be good for a roundtrip subway ride.  It seems to be the inspiration (while itself derivative) for other "young-man-in-NY" stories, including Davies's Frog King.
The narrator is a nameless second person voice in yet another story of anonymous Ivy League (proper names omitted) post-collegiate limbo.  I get rather tired of reading about these singular rehashings of the well-educated but immature and self-absorbed aspiring writers forever stuck in their all-encompassing artistic and spiritual block.  I am also sick of the over-represented 'dream of writing' - a tired and lazy choice of occupation because of its ambiguous objectives and mystical artistry.  Come on, friends, let's write about something far more fascinating and esoteric than deceptively vacuous hobbies.
There is little story, and what story there is is of little interest.  This book, while eliciting smiles at times, is nothing more than a trivial account of hooky work-evasion of a mid-20's male and coke-snorting social languor.  These narrators always come from the same place (the middle-class suburbian vacuum, are going nowhere slowly, and regard little besides themselves (which is to say, nothing of consequence).
Thus my search for a truly funny author (minus Heller and Vonnegut) continues.
3917368
I read this book because I liked The Devil Wears Prada by the same author. What I didn't realize, though, was that the storylines of both novels are pretty much the same: A normal girl gets a fancy, popular job but loses herself along the way. Basically, Everyone Worth Knowing is a Devil-Wears-Prada-replica. But it's worse. I'm not going to compare everything I criticize in this novel with Lauren Weisberger's first book since it's been a while since I read that one, but I remember liking it, so it must have been better than Everyone Worth Knowing.

This book is the opposite of a page-turner - there was no suspense, as there was no real conflict the reader was waiting for the protagonist to resolve, except for Bette not liking her job (or rather, the influence it had on her personal life), which didn't create any suspense as it was obvious and predictable that (sorry if this spoils it for you!) she was going to quit eventually, just like in The Devil Wears Prada. Bette tried to turn the fact that Ellie Insider wrote about her in her column into this huge problem, even when it was only positive and helped her career, and everything else about the book was just as over-dramatic.

One of the things that annoyed me most was the dialogue - it seemed fake, especially when the author made the characters use `fancy' words (sorry, don't know what else to call them), even if they were completely out of character for those speaking. That's not to say I mind those `big' words - I think it's important to have an eloquent narrator - but it seemed like the author just wanted to add some big words without thinking about how her characters would speak.
 Even though the protagonist was fairly relatable (well, not in her sulking phases, where she was just plain annoying), the minor characters were flat, underdeveloped and clichd; they seemed more like roles (best friend, hippie parents, bitch, fashion-obsessed co-worker, etc.) than like actual people. The parents are supposed to be hippies and feminists, but of course Bette's mom is the one who cooks and does the housework when Bette comes to visit them. Abby's character description (as someone who would sell out her own parents to get ahead) was repeated so often I was sick of it by the end of the book.

Sammy's character was one of the few I actually liked, and the Bette-and-Sammy-romance could even have been cute (albeit clichd), had it been developed and described properly - at first Bette absolutely hates Sammy and right afterwards she has a huge crush on him, without any sort of explanation.

(This next paragraph contains spoilers!)
Another thing that wasn't explained properly was why Elisa sold out information about Bette to Ellie Insider. I understand why she would stab Bette in the back (she's jealous of Bette because Kelly, the boss, put Bette in charge instead of Elisa, and because of Phillip), but giving Bette more media attention made no sense whatsoever - Kelly was delighted by the publicity!

I'm giving this book two stars instead of one only because the main idea could have been fun, had it not been the exact same one as Lauren Weisberger's first novel's. Other than that, I only have negative comments on the book. Read The Devil Wears Prada instead!
523574
I can't stand writers that repeat and repeat and repeat stuff that has nothing to do with the story.  Does he love me?  Do I love him?  I love him.  He doesn't love me the right way.  He is complex  (he is not complex, just dense), she is superficial.  But her magic makes her.....just as superficial.  The other characters are none too exciting.  The magic is boring and predictable.  The whole book and about getting ready for the big event.  Yawn!
3694595
This book seems to just be a patchwork of literary (and film) concepts that have made other works successful. What the reader ends up with is a sappy, Twilight-esque hybrid of Hunger Games and The Walking Dead... yet this book doesn't fully commit to any of those themes, prefering instead to sample them all. Nothing really unique or inspired here; skip it.
1890365
Now, Baldacci is not a literary giant but still, most of his books are relatively straightforward. Not is one. He hacks his way through Rube Goldberg plot contraptions that lead to multiple yawns and an urge to get it all over with. I almost don't finish. That would be a first. David, honestly, make things simpler. You are starting to write Grade B movies. Or worse.
550543
Gratitude was covered in The Secret, yet here we have a fourth book in the "series" doling out the same thing.

PROS:
For those that need a daily reminder practice in order to establish a new habit, (shame on your parents if you weren't taught to be thankful), this MAY be the book for you, IF you weren't one of the gazillion people that already purchased The Secret.

CONS:
Repetitive.
Day 12 is very much like Day 3
Day 14 is similar to Day 11
Day 15 is a derivative of Day 7
Day 16 = Day 4
Day 17 = Day 5
Day 22, Day 21 and Day 18 are varients of Day 13

You get the point.
Another note:  the use of the words "Magic", Magical", "Magically", etc. ad nauseam turn what might have been a valid codicil to "The Secret" into 254 pages of fluffery.  Just as the point driven home in "The Secret", (that all this knowledge has been withheld from the masses by the few) only served to instill MORE fear and greed into the hearts of many, (adding to the "entitlement" mentality so prevalent in this day and age), "The Magic" attempts to drive home the point that simply adding the "magic" words to your vocabulary will entitle you to all the material riches of the universe.  Gratitude must not only be cultivated it MUST be genuinely felt and given.  Given without expectation of anything in return.  There may be heart in Ms. Byrne's writing but the soul is pretentious.
4501729
I really am sick of the book du jour thing with everyone jumping on the bandwagon and extolling the virtues of a book that will be forgotten in a year.  I don't know what book the people who are leaving glowing reviews read but it ain't this one.  Juvenile prose, nothing that drags you in and holds your interest besides the mystery itself, no momentum to speak of -- this book is a snooze, really.  The author does nothing to really distinguish one character from the next besides throwing a few stereotypes in there.  She also has a tin ear for dialogue and so when the characters talk it comes out stilted and flat.

I must confess that I haven't finished reading it yet, and I don't know that I will.  The premise is interesting enough - cruise ship on its way back home stops outside of port and no one is told why or what's going on -- but there are too many characters to keep track of and most of them are not at all engaging so who cares what happens to them?  Not me!  I'd like to know what's happened but I honestly don't think I want to know badly enough to continue, and even if I do I'm pretty sure I'll be disappointed.

Why two stars?  Because the premise is interesting.  Another reviewer said this book is reminiscent of Stephen King.  That's funny, because I was just thinking how much I'd love to read the same scenario written by the master instead.  As far as I'm concerned, the only thing that this book has in common with anything Stephen King has written is that it's a 'people put into a bad situation and isolated from the world' book, so do yourself a favor and go reread The Stand again instead of wasting your time here.
3278669
Another annoying kid... Another weak plot... Another weak and tired non-original ending. Yawn!

I love how the main female character had her business attire all ripped up and dirty yet was still running around in her high heel pumps... Running from faster dino's all the way to the end of fhe movie. Come on man!

If we have another movie in this series it would be great if someone put some actual thought into the storyline to make it somewhat original...  Overall, I give this a two star rating because I like the series but that is its only saving grace. Everything else was a waste of time and money...
Buyer beware...
4628400
What a disappointment! I could not beleive that this was actually written in 1999. Unless you have been asleep for a couple of years most of the stuff in this tape would be familiar.
The tape starts with a few bits of  information such as the quote from Fortune: "On the web you are either  fast, or last." And then goes on to talk about channel conflict stating  that this is the most widely reported problem that businesses face. Well  neither the author nor these businesspeople have read customers.com because  Patricia Seybold has a solution (in fact so does Judson in strategy  10).
I did not like his telephone analogy for the web. Trouble always  comes when something new is described using nice comfortable familiar  concepts. His strategies are on the whole disappointingly stale: speed,  flexibility, efficiency, personal service and paranoia. Judson seems to  borrow his ideas from everyone (including Grove and Gates).
However, if  you have been asleep for the last two years, you are panicking because you  are about to be disintermediated and you want a primer in e-commerce, this  is probably for you.
Why three stars? Well I did not throw it out the car  and it did remind me of everything I had heard before.