Something Old, Something New: The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh, Semi-Pro

Something Old: The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh (1979)

Something New: Semi-Pro (2008)

The Connection: Both are disco-licious basketball comedies – my favorite genre

I am a cynic by nature. I don’t go to church. I don’t play the lottery. I don’t read books that the general population agrees are good. I don’t watch Extreme Home Makeover. I don’t think Barack Obama can revolutionize America. I don’t believe in procreation. I don’t coo over puppies.

But one of the few things that can consistently penetrate my hard-ass realist exterior is an underdog sports movie. Seriously. I can’t explain it, but ever since Rudy, this cheesiest of movie genres has had the ability to burrow in to my stone-cold heart and leave me feeling all warm and fuzzy inside, and sometimes even a little teary-eyed. It’s embarrassing but true, and I take a special kind of guilty pleasure in indulging this ever-so-sissy aspect of myself.

And while The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh is certainly no Rudy, it does the double-duty of being a satisfying underdog sports film and a campy tribute to the disco age (YESSSS!). Set in, duh, Pittsburgh, the film centers around a pro basketball team called the Pittsburgh Pythons that’s on the brink of extinction due to their horrendous track record. In an attempt to save the team, the young waterboy contacts an astrologer (Stockard Channing) to ask for advice, and she determines that the key to success is to create a team of players born under the sign Pisces – hence, the film’s title.

Featuring a whole host of old school bball players including Julius Erving and Meadowlark Lemon, the movie is really pretty much total crap but in all the right ways. The storyline is so outlandish, the acting so bad (Because when has an athlete ever been a good actor? Besides Shaq in Kazaam!, of course.), the budget so obviously low that the fact the film was even made is kind of an admirable underdog story in and of itself. Plus, for all conventional ways in which the movie blows, it makes up for it with the fancy ball-handling and trick shots from Dr. J and Lemon and the truly fabulous disco soundtrack.

Taking obvious cues from it’s predecessor, Semi-Pro is a lot like The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh, only it’s less an exhibition game with a storyline and more, you know, a movie. Newly released on DVD, Semi-Pro is Will Ferrell’s most recent comedic endeavor about a failing ABA team called the Flint Tropics. Ferrell is the team’s owner, coach, and power forward who realizes he needs to step up his play when he learns that the NBA will be absorbing the ABA, and only the top four teams will make it in to the more established league. The usual Ferrell barrage of hilarious one-liners (containing considerable more f-bombs than most Ferrell films) and celeb cameos ensues, all set to, of course, a booty-bumpin’ disco soundtrack.

While the film’s major players (Woody Harrelson and Andre Benjamin) drive the storyline, it’s the secondary characters that make it worth watching. Will Arnett and Andrew Daly are perfect as the Tropic’s announcers, and Andy Richter plays his perpetual role as That Awesome Other Dude to a T. Is this the new Anchorman? Hells no. But it does deliver what you expect/want from Ferrell, and leaves you feelin’ good like a sports movie should. Make sure to check out the DVD extras – the deleted scenes contain some funny improv, and as a Michigan native, I loved the “Four Days in Flint” footage.

BOTTOM LINE

The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh: Good crappy camp fun. Toss it on your Netflix and watch it on a rainy Sunday.

Semi-Pro: Nothing new, but standard issue Will Ferrell is way better than most of the shit out there.