Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby

[pete]

oh my god, you people and your fucking character arcs.  take that shit back to Noah in Genesis chapter 4 and capsize in God's wrath, please.

[Ghostboy]

This continues the tradition of summer 2006 movies that have some great parts in between all the parts that are goddman boring.

Still, it's better than Miami Vice and Pirates and Cars, all of which I also felt a small urge to doze off in.

[Chest Rockwell]

It was pretty funny, but the trailer was funnier.

[Pubrick]

It was pretty funny, but the trailer was funnier.

This continues the tradition

capsize in God's wrath, please.

[gob]

It made me laugh and thus fulfilled its purpose as a comedy. However, it never scaled the glorious heights of other Will Ferrell filmage such as Anchorman and unlike other great Frat Pack movies (Old School, Dodgeball, Zoolander) this one had jokes that just really weren't funny. It was hit and miss.

John C. Reilly and Sacha Baron Cohen were the standout players for me in this, Will Ferrell had his moments as Ricky Bobby but was by no means the star of the show.

Despite its letdowns it's still worth a watch.

SHAKE AN' BAKE!

[Tictacbk]

The commentary on this DVD is set 25 years in the future for the "Silver Edition Anniversary DVD."   It is seriously funnier than the actual movie. Definitely worth a rent I think.

[grand theft sparrow]

The commentary on this DVD is set 25 years in the future for the "Silver Edition Anniversary DVD."   It is seriously funnier than the actual movie. Definitely worth a rent I think.

Apparently this commentary is only on the theatrical version of the movie.  The unrated version that I just rented has Adam McKay and Ian Roberts (no Ferrell) talking about how it really cost $400 million and how it's undeniably one of the 5 greatest motion pictures ever made, etc.  It's funny but I turned it off after 20 minutes.

As for the movie, it was universally agreed that it's not as good as Anchorman, so I thought I knew what (not) to expect.  I can't even express my disappointment in this movie.

What I was expecting was Will Ferrell's humor transplanted to NASCAR.  But it seems like the whole movie was stooping to almost Blue Collar TV/redneck humor; every joke was obvious, no randomness to even speak of.  There were a few bright moments in the movie, like Ricky Bobby's hands in the shot in his first interview, or Sacha Baron Cohen's intro with the jazz in the bar, Mos Def's bizarre 4-second cameo.  But I sat through the whole thing and I think I laughed out loud maybe 4 or 5 times after the first 15 minutes when I hadn't become bored yet. 

I was reminded of what Pete said about Nacho Libre:  who cares about the plot, just do the jokes.  I think that's what this needed.  There was too much of a structured plot and there wasn't enough room for the actors to just fuck around.  It tried but when Reilly, SBC, Gary Cole, and Jane Lynch are in a Will Ferrell movie and I still find it hard to do more than chuckle every few minutes, something is horribly horribly wrong. 

Between the movie underwhelming me and being disappointed in the lack of that 25th Anniversary commentary, the whole experience just made me sad.