Yeah, I am there like a mofo. I dig auto racing but that doesn't even matter. Will Farell rules and I will see just about everything he is in. Except Bewitched, that looked stupid.
From imdb
NASCAR stock car racing sensation Ricky Bobby (Will Ferrell) is a national hero because of his "win at all costs" approach. He and his loyal racing partner, childhood friend Cal Naughton Jr. (John C. Reilly), are a fearless duo -- "Shake" and "Bake" by their fans for their ability to finish so many races in the #1 and #2 positions, with Cal always in second place. When flamboyant French Formula One driver Jean Girard (Sacha Baron Cohen) challenges "Shake" and "Bake" for the supremacy of NASCAR, Ricky Bobby must face his own demons and fight Girard for the right to be known as racing's top driver.
EW review: 'Talladega' is hilarious
Movie has its weak points, but Ferrell and Co. are winners
By Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly
Friday, August 4, 2006; Posted: 12:01 p.m. EDT (16:01 GMT)
(Entertainment Weekly) -- Will Ferrell has a mission, if not an obsession -- to celebrate, and satirize, the pumped-up folly of American manhood -- and he has found a customized vehicle for it in "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby."
As Ricky, a NASCAR racer with major daddy issues who grows up nursing one thought (''I wanna go fast''), Ferrell uses his steady-silly baby-fat gaze and impervious ego to make gleeful fun of the tacky bravado of ''outlaw'' Southern car culture.
How arrogant a yokel is Ricky? He can't stop preening about his skills (''I wake up ... and I p--- excellence!''), he's so greedy for sponsors that he plasters a Fig Newton decal on his windshield, and he turns the act of saying grace into a competitive sport.
He also won't let his best friend, the boobish rube Cal (John C. Reilly), win a single race.
"Talladega Nights" takes some very funny cheap shots, especially when Ricky faces down his new team member -- a gay, French, Camus-reading-behind-the-wheel Formula One driver played, with a leer worthy of Peter Sellers, by Sacha Baron Cohen.
A Will Ferrell blowhard must, of course, be brought down, and "Talladega Nights" grows flakier and more uneven the lower Ricky falls.
The races, however, are scorchingly shot, and they lend the movie a zest that was missing from "Anchorman," Ferrell's last collaboration with director/co-writer Adam McKay. This one scores laughs right down to its gloriously gaga climactic smooch.
Ferrell's tank full of laughs in racecar flick
Race-car flick runs the perfect race
By Jack Garner
Gannett News Service
If real NASCAR offered as many laughs as "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," I might be more inspired to watch the very popular, left-turn-only sport.
In "Talladega Nights," Will Ferrell plays a cocky but oh-so-successful race-car driver who gets his comic comeuppance just when he seems to be sitting on top of the NASCAR world. We then watch with bemusement and even a touch of sympathy as Ricky Bobby tries for a comeback.
The film is the second in what eventually could conceivably become known as the "job profile" comedy series, created by Ferrell and his director and co-writer Adam McKay. (The first was "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy," a modestly amusing 2004 comedy that this film outperforms.)
That's not to say that Ferrell and McKay run a perfect race with "Talladega Nights." At one hour, 40 minutes, the film goes several laps beyond the general comedy standard of about 90 minutes. And there is an awful lot of round-and-round NASCAR racing, which will certainly please the sport's many fans but might leave the less-enthused sucking exhaust fumes.
Still, "Talladega Nights" offers a broader array of genuinely funny characters than "Anchorman," including a loyal puppy-dog of a partner who shockingly turns on his buddy just when he's most needed. He's played by the superb and consistently underrated John C. Reilly. Then there's a supercilious French Formula "Un" driver, who becomes Ricky Bobby's race nemesis. He's hilariously introduced when he dares to play a Charlie Parker jazz tune on the jukebox in the country-and-Western roadhouse bar favored by the drivers. (The bartender says the song is on the jukebox only as "an aid to profiling.") The Frenchman is played with amusing verve by Sacha Baron Cohen (HBO's "Da Ali G Show").
Other standouts include Ricky Bobby's long-absent, ne'er-do-well father, played with a crusty, trashy exuberance by the usually clean-cut Gary Cole, as well as Ricky Bobby's blond, money-grabbing trophy wife (Leslie Bibb). Recent Oscar nominee Amy Adams (of "Junebug") has a great scene late in the film as the staff secretary who rekindles Ricky Bobby's long-dormant sexual drive.
But it's Ferrell who delivers the expected centerpiece of the film, generating laughs with a performance that's subtle and surprisingly sophisticated, even though it's employed to display silly and often low-class behavior.
If you've been waiting for a summer comedy that's generally worth your popcorn -- filmgoers, start your engines.
It's getting mixed reviews, it seems the critics either get the movie or they don't.
I read one that was whining about the movie making racial sterotypes of Southreners. Whatever! We Southren George Bush types are comfortable in our skin, we don't need no uppity yankee movie reviewer telling us that we are being taken advantage of by Hollywood.
I don't know if I'll see it at the movies, but this will be a sure fire DVD rental.
Saw it a week or so back. I liked it for sure, better than Anchorman, but it wasn't great. I'm a Nascar fan and all that, also a huge Will Ferrell fan, but him and McKay have a unique sense of humor that gets a little old sometimes.
I laughed a good amount but there were no gut busting scenes. A lot of it seemed improved or loosely scripted. The cast was great, especially his kids, Walker and Texas Ranger. The plot had enough cohesion to suspend disbelief, I suppose.
Overall a good comedy, not a great one.
I saw the matinee and I suggest you do the same. Waiting to rent the DVD is also a wise decision.
okay i have to admit this isnt will ferrell's best movie but it's still hilarious! def go and see it! o and that guy from borat is in it too. can't wait for that to come out
08-03-2006 03:07 AM
Whatever! We Southren George Bush types are comfortable in our skin, we don't need no uppity yankee movie reviewer telling us that we are being taken advantage of by Hollywood. 
