Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby review

2006.08.18— Entertainment | Movies | Movie Reviews | by Andrew Cole

Get your race face on and fire up that fuel-injected 1,000-horsepower grizzly bear under the hood—it's time to go racin' with Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. It's the heart-warming tale of a man who loves to go fast and the people who love, support, back-stab, steal from, and fool him into thinking they are dead.

Will Ferrell is Ricky Bobby, a good ol' boy born at 116 MPH, who rises thru the ranks of NASCAR to become a racing phenom and live the American dream of having a big house, a smokin' hot wife, sons named Walker and Texas Ranger, and a best friend that will never let him down.

The End.

He gets support from John C Reilly as best friend Cal, Leslie Bibb as the smokin' hot Carley, and Sacha Baron Cohen (looking and sounding nothing like his Ali G character) as his chief rival—when Ricky Bobby is not being his own chief rival. The cast doesn't stop there, tho. Gary Cole, Michael Clark Duncan, Amy Adams, and Greg Germann play crucial roles and get their own laughs in what could have been an ensemble piece if Ferrell wasn't in every scene.

Our story doesn't really end with the attainment of fame and fortune, of course. Ricky has a nervous breakdown after a racing accident and his life falls apart like a loose meat sandwich on a bumpy car ride down a dirt road to Shitville (population: you and Mel Gibson). Along the way, the gay French Formula Un driver (Cohen) brought on as his teammate becomes a media darling, his best friend steals his wife, his wife steals his money, and he even loses his driver's license. How do you battle back from a kick in the groin like that? You meet up with your long-lost dad and you fight a cougar. And you start protecting your groin better.

Talladega Nights was directed by Adam McKay and co-written by him with Will Ferrell, just they way they did with Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. The writing is sharp and witty, with plenty of improv by the terrific cast giving it all a loose, slightly loopy feel. The twists and turns of the plot often don't make a lot of sense—Cal's casual betrayal is bizarre, and it's never explained how Ricky ends up so broke he has to deliver pizzas—but the laughs are fast and frequent, even if they only turn left.

The movie does bog down a bit whenever it tries to introduce a plot point. The introduction of Sacha Baron Cohen's Jean Girard character goes on little too long and doesn't make a lot of sense. He comes into Ricky's bar hangout, disses Ricky, flaunts his gay husband (Andy Richter), and somehow doesn't get beaten to a soft, bloody pulp. In fact, most of the scenes between Cohen and Farrell feel a bit overly improvised and incoherent. John C Reilly as Cal and Michael Clark Duncan as Lucius, on the other hand, are consistently hilarious as Ricky's pals, altho Cal's betrayal is just ridiculous checklist screenwriting.

Possibly the most awkward aspect of the screenplay is the introduction and eventual reintroduction of Amy Adams as Susan the assistant; the filmmakers just don't seem to know what to do with her, but they're sure they need her. When she returns, she should arrive on screen waving a shoehorn.

Still, Will Ferrell's arrogant goofiness and eventual discovery of the virtues of humility—I mean kick-ass American awesomeness times two—make Talladega Nights reliably funny thruout, and a few golden moments (like Michael Clark Duncan trying to use a second knife to pry another knife out of Ferrell's leg) could make this a screwball classic... down the road a piece.

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