NEW REVIEW!!
TALLADEGA NIGHTS
THE BALLAD OF RICKY BOBBY

(2006, dir. Adam McKay)

When I first saw the trailer for Talladega Nights I was amused. I laughed out loud. I was excited to see the movie. Signing the baby's head. "Help me Tom Cruise!" Funny. Ok. That was in April. Since then, I have seen that same trailer about 20 times before other movies or on TV. There have also been subsequent trailers with new material. The cougar. Extended "Help me Tom Cruise!" sequence. As a result, I had already seen the best parts of Talladega Nights and seen them several times before I ever stepped into a screening of the entire film. When it became clear that the film was going to be the trailer only with an inevitable dash of pretension and feel-goodism, I actually walked out. Talladega Nights is the first movie I can remember ever walking out of. Not because it was that bad. But because it was that "blah."

Scoring a healthy opening weekend in August is not hard. It's just not. Every year some film achieves the achievable and we're supposed to shit ourselves with excitement. Last year that film was The 40-Year-Old Virgin. This year it will be Snakes on a Plane. It's not that I don't like Virgin or even Anchorman, for that matter. It's just that I find it extremely hard to wildly commend people for repeating themselves. Talladega Nights is exactly what you'd expect it to be only worse. The people that brought you the aforementioned "films" (glorified SNL sketches) pack those juicy trailer-ready bits into long uninspired scenes where the jokes don't go anywhere. In fact, they're stillborn. Actually, the appropriate simile would be: the jokes are like a bunch of pregnant women running around screaming "I'M GONNA GIVE BIRTH SOON!"

Ricky Bobby is a hot-shot race car driver who rises to fame only to fall grace and eventually redeem himself. Ten years ago, this would be a Tom Cruise vehicle. In this post-Enron America, it's a raucous comedy dipping its toe into Christopher Guest parody. The thing I will give Adam McKay is that he has a way with the camera. He's smart. Should he continue writing movies with television actors? Probably not. I like Will Ferrell. I like him a lot. I am not convinced he's a movie star. I never was. His best work is available on DVD. An example of Ferrell being underwhelming that also illustrates my point about the jokes being pregnant women is a scene between Ferrell and Oscar-nominated actor, John C. Reilly.

Reilly plays Ferrell's best friend who eventually (and rather amiably) usurps his buddy's #1 position on the track and in his house (by stealing his gold-digging wife). Reilly calls a down-and-out Ferrell to ask him how to work the stereo in the house that used to be Ferrell's that Reilly now lives in. The scene aimlessly wanders around in search of a punchline. "I think your house is haunted." "Why would you listen to the TV and the stereo?" "I like to party." Reilly easily steals the scene as the deadpan, laidback foil to Ferrell's frustrated protagonist. But, here's the issue, this scene along with many others in the film turn Ferrell into the straight man. And Ferrell is not a good straight man. At least in Anchorman, his Ron Burgundy was a welcome retread of his Robert Goulet character. Ricky Bobby is just Ferrell with a Good Ol' Boy accent and a paycheck in his hand.

Reilly is one of many talented supporting actors who use this lifeless excuse for a movie as an opportunity to rachet a notch in their "commercial" film belt. Sascha Baron Cohen who plays the villian is incredible but seems weary while improvising with Ferrell. He's such a master of the art and Talladega is such a lay-up for him that he manages to look bored AND funny. Cohen can navigate his way through anything. And since McKay and Ferrell insist on deconstructing every scene until the funny has been sufficiently wrung out of it, watching Cohen spar with Ferrell is like watching Laurence Olivier in a high school production of Hair. Speaking of which, Leslie Bibb and Amy Adams claw their way out of obscurity to nail their roles as the gold-digging wife and beleaguered assistant respectively. Adams is especially good in a bizarre monologue that serves as the "go-out-there-and-get-em" moment.

All in all, I've seen worse movies this year but this film is for Ferrell-junkies only. You may enjoy yourself if you haven't seen the trailer 20 times and those bits are fresh for you. But I doubt that it will have you rolling in the aisles or stay with you longer than five seconds after you leave the theater. If you're looking for a laugh and good time, watch Little Miss Sunshine. If you're looking for a two hour nap, watch Talladega Nights.

Bottom Line: I mean... I walked out with about ten minutes left in the movie. I was so bored that I actually expected commercials to run in the middle of this pithy piece of triviality. Wait for video. Actually network TV. Better yet, just watch it when your on a plane.