Ricky Bobby - Loco por la velocidad

One of Ferrell's stronger, fearlessly idiotic films, with the style his career is built on: comedy surrounding moronic characters doing stupid stuff.

Ricky Bobby, showcasing all the stereotypical characteristics of a redneck, is a loudmouth NASCAR driver of immense talent, who either wins or crashes trying. When a sophisticated but snooty French Formula One driver encroaches on Bobby's territory, he goes all out to stay number one.

Ferrell has a great chemistry with Reilly, a connection to be visited later in their careers. In general, it is a fairly star-studded cast, Adams thrown in with a fairly minor impact role for most of the film. Cohen is recruited to lean into a daft foreign stereotype, his speciality, but with no need for subtlety on this one, blunt jokes revolving around how the character's supposed superiority and often his homosexuality is responded to by the world of NASCAR.

Much like Anchorman and Step Brothers, the film is really ridiculous, loud and brash. Something Ferrell's fans will love, and that others would hate. Honestly though, the bloopers at the end are probably the funniest part.

When looking at the merits of a movie and decide whether it is good or not, one must think of the goal of the picture. Is it a serious film, designed to comment on society, or is the movie's job to merely entertain? I think we all know the answer to this one when it comes to Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. This movie's goal is to entertain the audience, make them laugh, make them spend an hour and a half rejoicing in talented comedians doing their job well. And this movie reached its goal. Not only is this movie an above-average sports movie (it even concludes with a big race and a warm and fuzzy winner!), but is also a very funny movie. All I had to do was listen to the reaction of the sold out theater I was in and I knew that most people will find this movie to be very funny. Will Ferrell is Ricky Bobby, a NASCAR driver who makes up one half of "Shake and Bake," with John C. Reilly's Cal Naughton, Jr. being the "Bake" half of the duo. They are childhood friends who have now become teammates on the top NASCAR level, where Cal sets up the play that lets Ricky win almost every race--that is, unless Ricky has already crashed out of it. Talladega Nights follows the same story arc that Days of Thunder did, but is far more entertaining, as Ferrell and Reilly work together to bring humor to all parts of the racer's lives, including a bizarre dinner ritual that includes corporate sponsorship. Sure, the movie slows down for about 20 minutes in the middle to develop plot, but that may have been designed to give us, the audience, a break, allowing us to get ready for the final scenes of the movie. Sacha Baron Cohen (aka Ali G, Borat) plays the French Formula 1 driver who threatens to oust Ricky Bobby as the best driver on the track, perhaps the funniest overall character in the movie. There is not one scene with Cohen in it that isn't funny. After watching this movie, it is clear why Will Ferrell takes his comedies so seriously (watch the extras on the Elf DVD to see Ferrell between scenes, he's not always "on" playing the clown on set)--he gets the results he's looking for. This movie is laugh-out-loud funny pretty much from start to finish, and seeing Gary Cole return to comedy as Ricky Bobby's father will bring back memories of Office Space for a moment, then this new character will win you over.

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby is rather significant. Why? Because it is the first team up of Will Farrell and John C. Reily on the big screen. Released in 2006, Talladega Nights was released at a great time. Back when Will Farrell was at his height in the film industry and back when NASCAR was pretty popular. It only seemed that a movie should be made in hopes of making lots of money. And it did. Talladega Nights had a budget of $72.5 million and made back over double that amount. For the longest time I thought that Step Brothers was the better team up but since my opinion has slightly changed over that film alone, will Talladega Nights see a change in opinion?

Ricky Bobby has lived his whole life by the motto of "If you ain't first, you're last". Ricky Bobby is also a NASCAR driver and possibly the best there is. When a new race driver named Jean Girard comes to race, it seems that Ricky has met his match. A wreck occurs and Ricky is thought to be done with racing, but the Talladega race is coming around the corner, and Ricky wants to race. But most importantly, win.....

Again, for the longest time, I always saw Step Brothers as the better Reily and Ferrell film. But that has changed. I am not saying that this is leaps and bounds better than Step Brothers. I like Step Brothers and I like this film. But this film is not really a piece of art. The acting is fine. The actors feel right in their respective roles and to a point that I honestly forgot that Will Ferrell does not have a southern accent. Oscar worthy? No, considering the tough competition and what not, but still good. The characters themselves are fine too. They mostly follow the typical sterotypes which is something that some people say made NASCAR look bad. But, they all have chemistry and are loads of fun to watch. Especially Reily and Ferrell which is great that they did Step Brothers together. The story is considerably better in this film than Step Brothers as it is more complex and has an actual plot and what not. The comedy is good. Whereas Step Brothers took the really potty mouth approach, Talladega Nights is not quite as potty mouth with it's humor. Again, it is that dumb smart humor which actually works best in this film. Almost because it is a sort of satire in a way. I found myself laughing more than in Step Brothers which was the big deal about me changing my mind about how this film compares to Step Brothers. Not nearly as quotable as Step Brothers, but just the scenes by themselves are memorable.

Talladega Nights is a funny film. Some prefer Step Brothers over this film which is fine. If you are a fan of Will Ferrell and/or racing, this film should entertain you.

Talladega Nights is one of those movies I was rather shocked I hadn't seen, it was high profile, I don't mind Ferrell's work and you see it referenced all time yet it's taken me this long to get around to it.

I expected generic Hollywood drivel and it is, but thanks to some decent writing (In places) I'd say it's an above par effort (Just).

With a vast who's who cast and co-written by Ferrell himself this tells the story of Nascar driver Ricky Bobby as he reaches the pinnacle of the industry only to lose it all when a rival turns up and takes his spot.

With Greg Germann playing the same character he always does, namely the really easy to hate villainous type and Sacha Baron Cohen whom I simply cannot abide for some reason. Regarding him I have to say I admire his work and him as a human being, I just can't stand him in anything I've seen thus far!

The film adopts all the usual tropes you'd expect and is hugely paint by numbers, it's incredible cast feel rather wasted though it was really nice to see Gary Cole as it always is.

Some of the writing caught me off guard with how good it was, sadly that only happened 3-4 times and the rest is really generic stuff.

If you like standard Hollywood comedy you can do worse, if you want something you haven't seen a hundred times before then hop, skip and jump over it.

The Good:

Gary Cole

Some surprisingly good humor

Some great songs on the soundtrack

The Bad:

Sacha Baron Cohen

Usual formula

You still get plenty of fast paced action, muscle cars, and massive car crashes. You just get to laugh a lot too.

Will Ferrell really doesn't get enough credit for his acting. As mindless as it seems, he still manages to make it believable. You have to keep in mind it's usually during over-the-top parodies, so it's supposed to be carefree and with complete disdain, yet he still manages to make it intelligent most of the time (at least in this film), so the result is far more than simple fart and gross-out type jokes.

He also had the benefit of writing this film, cast members like John C. Reilly and Sasha Baron Cohen, and a focus for the film in deep need of parody. NASCAR has been long overdue.