Talladega Nights

TALLADEGA NIGHTS: THE BALLAD OF RICKY BOBBY Review:
I really enjoy Will Ferrell ... SOMETIMES, usually when he's doing outrageous characters. When he's acting as an extension of his regular Will Ferrell persona, I can't say I'm that big of a fan. Some of the stuff that other people find hilarious, I don't really get. I always hated the Cheerleaders on SNL, and I couldn't stand the organ-players sketches. I loved Harry Kerry, Robert Goulet, James Lipton, him and Rachel Dratch as the crazy professor "lovers", and of course, Cowbell. But when Old School came out, and everyone was all into Will Ferell, I didn't quite get it. It was an OKAY movie, but not that great. However, I loved Elf, and then Anchorman was pretty hilarious. So I guess what I'm trying to say is: Will doing Anchorman-style deadpan humor = very funny. Will doing over-the-top frat-packish humor = kinda annoying. Luckily, Talladega Nights is, mostly, the GOOD, funny brand of Will Ferell.

Basically, this is just a really fun movie. It reminded me of a cross between the sincerity and affectionate redneck satire of King of the Hill combined with the irreverence and false bravado of Anchorman. It doesn't really rank as a classic comedy, and takes a lot of shortcuts with its plot and characters, but it has enough laughs to easily justify the price of a movie ticket.

I mean, for one thing, the supporting cast is great. Let me do a quick run through:

Gary Cole (Office Space) - very funny as Ricky's deadbeat racing Dad
John C Reilly - pretty much the funniest character in the movie - most actors would make you want to shoot them for saying "Shake n Bake" 5 billion times in one movie - Reilly makes you love it.
Jane Lynch (Best in Show) - one of the best comedic actresses out there, she's great as Ricky's mom
Sacha Baron Cohen - What can you say? We're talking about Ali G here. Cohen is never as funny as the gay, French racecar driver / villain Jean Girard as he is as Ali G, Borat, or Bruno, but he crafts a memorable antagonist who has some of the film's funniest moments.
Amy Adams - shows some legit acting chops and has some scene-stealing moments as Ricky's assistant / love-interest.

And man, the kids in this movie are pretty hilarious as well. The younger one in particular gets off a ton of great lines.

So yeah, this is a funny movie, but structurally it definitely feels a little rushed. There's a ton of characters, and a lot of the character arcs occur really quickly, so that even when they are deliberately absurd (John C Reilly moving into Ricky's house and taking up with his wife hours after Ricky is hospitalized), they still seem a bit off. The humor walks the line between being organic to the plot and left-field absurd, but mostly it works, in the same vein as Anchorman or The 40 Year Old Virgin. But like I said, some of the randomness here feels more the result of poor pacing and structure than purely part of the joke.

As a comedy it's funny - to me it isn't as memorable as Nacho Libre, and not quite as good of a Will Ferell vehicle or as smart of a parody as Anchorman, but still easily among the better comedies to come out this year. Compared to the lame You, Me, and Dupree, it is on another plateau of comedy prowess, and this one's laugh ratio blows Owen Wilson's as Dupree out of the water. This one is very, very solid - probably not one you'll revisit over and over, but at least upon first viewing you'll get plenty of laughs.

My grade: B+