Movie: Semi-ProDirector: Kent AltermanActors: Will Ferrell, Woody Harrelson, Will ArnettProduction company: Donners’ Company

The other day someone asked me, with a hint of annoyance, if this was “another Will Ferrell movie.”

Well, technically speaking, yes. This is a movie. And Will Ferrell’s in it.

Of course, history tells me that if this were Annie Hall, the subtitles under our conversation would have read, “Is this another comedy in the vein of Old School, Anchorman, Talladega Nights and Blades of Glory?”

The funny thing is, however, Will Ferrell has managed to keep himself a fairly unique entity in our pop culture because he avoids doing the same thing over and over. Aside from carrying in his wake a variety of quality Saturday Night Live skits, he also started the now popular Funny Or Die video Web site.

In film, while often a goof, he’s a memorable goof. This is made clear by the fact that when someone mentions the name of one of his films, they’re immediately struck by the sheer presence of his performance. And if a comedic Ferrell isn’t your scene, Stranger Than Fiction and Winter Passing show that the man has vast tracks of untapped dramatic potential.

While Ferrell isn’t always a license to print gold stars with me, he’s always worth my time and if you’re a fan of his films, this is too.

But hey, there are other actors in this film, too! Sorry for not mentioning them sooner, Ferrell’s rather titanic nature begs a discussion of him.

Taking place in 1976 during the merger between the National Basketball Association and the American Basketball Association — inventors of the three-point shot, Jackie Moon (Ferrell) is owner, coach and player for the Flint Tropics, a team of, dare I say, maverick basketball players who play by every rule that isn’t in the book and then some. Andre Benjamin as Coffee Black and eventually Woody Harrelson and Monix fill out the strong personalities of the team. Things start to go south when Jackie, who dreams of becoming a part of the mass conglomerate that is the NBA, learns that the Tropics won’t be joining the Nuggets, Pacers, Nets and Spurs, and is determined to ratchet his team’s talent and attendance up.

The genius of many Ferrell movies, especially Anchorman, is getting a bunch of comedians or talented actors in the same room and letting them riff on one another. There’s a fantastic scene at a card table that turns to Russian Roulette, and I’m sweating and giggling incessantly as I watch. The comedy shines, not always in the dialogue, but in the film’s acting. Will Arnett (Blades of Glory) and Andrew Daly (MADtv) play the Tropics’ announcers and their banter is just the right kind of witty. It’s doled out in just the right amounts so you don’t get tired of it. Harrelson, who can jump from A Prairie Home Companion to No Country For Old Men to this without breaking a sweat, makes up the other half of a decent, albeit cliched, romantic side of the story.

If I have to say three things about this film, they are the following.

One, this isn’t Will Ferrell’s best comedy and there just isn’t enough easily quotable dialogue, partly because the rhythm is disrupted by occasionally unnecessary amounts of swearing.

Two, the story is a little thin, and before someone says that it’s a comedy and doesn’t need to have a story, well, you’re wrong. I like the fact that Jackie made his money off a fake 70s song called “Love Me Sexy,” which you should go listen to on YouTube at the earliest possible convenience as Ferrell has a fine larynx on him. But as to why Harrelson’s love interest, Lynn (Maura Tierney), is in a relationship with a seemingly jobless idiot, or mistakes like the magically disappearing necklace around Monix’s ring, there’s no excuse for it.

Three, it’s pretty darn funny, so go see it.