Despite an intense marketing push, Will Ferrell's latest sports comedy just couldn't hold up to his previous two efforts. Semi-Pro did take the number one spot at the box office this weekend, but it did so with a measly $15 million. Compared to last year's Blades of Glory (opened with $33 million) and Talladega Nights (opened with $47 million), that $15 million doesn't look so great -- and it's certainly not the way New Line wanted to go out (even though they are, technically, going out on top).

So why didn't anyone go see this film? Granted, people did go see it (enough for $15 million), but it played in over 3,000 theaters. Did the R rating actually hurt the film? Keep in mind, both Blades and Talladega Nights were PG-13 -- so did a raunchy, foul-mouthed Ferrell keep audiences away? Or was it the supporting cast? Woody Harrelson and Andre Benjamin aren't Jon 'Napoleon Dynamite" Heder and Sacha "Borat" Baron Cohen. Did Ferrell need a little more juice around him in order to score bigger buckets? Maybe the whole '70s basketball thing wasn't so appealing? I guess the bigger question should be: Does this $15 million opening signal the beginning of the end of Ferrell's reign over the box office?

Why did you stay away from Semi-Pro, which I heard was actually pretty damn funny?

As the gift giving season approaches, I've decided to give myself a present and indulge in a handful of trailers for movies whose only connection to each other is that I've been looking forward to them. This week on Trailer Park, it's all about me.

The Poughkeepsie Tapes
I've seen some grumbling online about how this pseudo documentary has similarities to The Blair Witch Project which in turn owed a debt to Cannibal Holocaust and The Last Broadcast. No, there's nothing new under the sun, but what matters is the execution (an unfortunate choice of words in this case). The film is built around footage supposedly shot by a serial killer who wanted to record his crimes for posterity. There are two trailers floating around, the one at Youtube which you can link to at the top of this paragraph, and this one. Both show news reports of the murders, documentary style interviews, and grainy VHS quality footage of the crimes. It looks pretty disturbing, and I hope to see this when it releases sometime in 2008. Ryan Stewart reviewed the film when it played Tribeca and you can read that here.

Semi Pro
I have to qualify this one by saying I was looking forward to it before seeing the trailer, but now I'm not so sure. Will Ferrell plays Jackie Moon, a coach/basketball player in the 1970s. The league he plays in is about to be absorbed by the NBA, and Moon is determined that his team will survive the transition. Not sure if Ferrell is running out of steam or if I am, but I'm left feeling lukewarm about this one. We've seen him do 70s schtick in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, and this is his third sports themed film (fourth if you count the kid oriented Kicking and Screaming), so I guess I'm a little tired of him repeating himself. Stranger Than Fiction was a nice change of pace for Ferrell, and I'd like to see more of that. Still the bit in Semi Pro with the bear is pretty good. Here's Christopher Campbell's take on the trailer.