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Reviews
The Devil and Daniel Webster (2003)
A waste of time
I had high hopes for it when I heard that it was being made back in 2001 because I read "The Devil and Daniel Webster" when I was a kid and I found it very interesting. They made some changes to the story that don't make much sense to me. Daniel Webster in the story was a famous lawyer from New Hampshire in the story. In the movie he is an editor. A lawyer makes more sense since he ends up representing Jabez Stone against the devil him/herself (he was a man in the story, but was a woman in the movie) in a trial where both of their souls are on the line. As an editor, it doesn't seem likely that Daniel Webster would have the skill to do this.
The acting was decent by all except for Alec Baldwin and Dan Aykroyd. These are two actors that I like, they just did an awful job in this movie. It was as though they thought they were acting in a comedy, but the movie was more a serious one than a comedy. This might be partly due to the fact that the movie was filmed with a particular vision in mind, and was then re-edited by somebody else. Given this fact, it's surprising that it was at all coherent. I was surprised to see a fair amount of SNL cast members in the movie, which further leads me to believe it may have originally been filmed with the intention of it being more of a comedy.
All in all I would have to say it wasn't completely awful, but it wasn't much good. If I could get the hour and a half back and do something else with it, I would. The ending was especially disappointing. As in the original story, Daniel Webster defeats the devil in the trial. Jabez then starts out again at the beginning of the movie...literally, we are just brought back to the first scene with Jabez, and then the movie abruptly ends. It actually looked as though they just replayed Jabez' first scene over and called it the end. There is no indication that Jabez has the benefit of any of the knowledge or experience he gained, so who is to say he didn't just repeat his mistakes over again, and perhaps over and over in an endless loop? It was an extremely disappointing end and did not make a lot of sense. The decent cast, and the acting of everyone except for Baldwin and Aykroyd are the only things that keep this from being a complete and total crap sandwich.
Semi-Pro (2008)
Make enough movies and they will be bound to suck occasionally
I am a Will Ferrell fan. I've liked all of his movies and I own them all. Whether it's fair or not, this movie will be regarded as a blemish on his career. Was it good? No. All of his other movies can be watched over and over, but if you watch this one once, you won't care to watch it again, and if you're like me, you'll be upset that you just lost an hour and a half of your life that you can never get back. I don't think this is Will Ferrell's fault though, unless he wrote the script. I also happen to be a fan of Woody Harrelson. I think it takes an exceptional hunk-of-crap script to wreck a movie with these two established comedic actors.
To whoever greenlit this crapwagon - what the frig were you thinking? Will Ferrell already fought a bear in Anchorman. And has the underdog basketball team theme not been used 97 FRIGGING TIMES already? Seriously, it's like they were shopping for ideas out of the discount bin at Wal-Mart. TRY people, just once, TRY to make an original movie so you don't have to waste time wondering why your Frankenstein movie, patched together from other used ideas, tanked.