Kent Alterman directs yet another Will Ferrell outing as his attention turns to Basketball as the target for his brand of crazy eccentricity.

Jackie Moon (Ferrell), a former funk megastar, is the owner/player/promoter for Flint Tropics a once thriving but now down at heels Basketball outfit. The only way to save the team is to grab a slice of a new NBA/ABA merger, which is all well and good, but only the top 4 ABA teams are to be promoted, thereby the backdrop to the story.

We see an ex big time player (Woody Harrelson) come into the fold, and silly but half amusing promotions and madcap stunts to pull the crowds back in. The problem is that we have seen too many of Ferrell’s recent movies do exactly the same type of comedy, ‘Blades of Glory’ and ‘Talladega Nights’ being just two of them. He certainly has talent, but the mad hair and even more garish than reality 70’s fashion is not a substitute for witty dialogue or funny character play. The pace of the movie is plodding, and the manic Ferrell only keeps his head above water by increasingly desperate flapping, there is nothing to like in any of the characters and therefore no involvement for the viewer.

3.0/10, Too loose for parody, too straight faced for humour, and precious little in the way of genuine fun, this is not even semi-worthy of the time taken to watch it. When the 70’s style is all you have to poke fun at, then the script is missing something basic. Will Ferrell hit a better target with the drama-comedy ‘Stranger Than Fiction’, like Jim Carrey before him, perhaps he needs a new string for his bow.