Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby (2006)

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Director: Adam McKay Cast: Will Ferrell, Sacha Baron Coehn (Ali G), John C. Reilly Country: USA Year: 2006 Score: *** MPAA Rating:

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From silly quotations like “If you ain’t first, you’re last” to characters with two first names like Ricky Bobby, TALADEGA NIGHTS: THE BALLAD OF RICKY BOBBY, from the same team that brought last year’s comedy with the similar title, ANCHORMAN: THE LEGEND OF RON BURGUNDY delivers exactly what audiences expect, a comedy spoof based on a serious all-American lifestyle.  The target is NASCAR racing.  The film takes a look at the life of fictitious NASCAR champion Ricky Bobby – from his rise to fame to his downfall and rise again.  A message is present as well – but TALLADEGA NIGHTS director Adam McKay and the writers (McKay and Will Ferrell) are well aware and have in check that this message and any love interest are only peripheral to the comedy at hand. 
The comedy is pretty funny, often bordering on the absurd.  There are touches of Woody Allen, probably rubbed off from Will Ferrell being in once of his old films, MELINDA AND MELINDA.  TALLADEGA opens with little Ricky driving off his mother’s car from the parking lot while she is out picking up groceries.  “I wanna go fast” is the first quote of quotes.  From there, Ricky Bobby gets his break when a lazy driver Terry (director McKay himself) allows him a chance.  Rising to the top, he ditches his best friend (JOHN C. REILLY doing quite well in a comedic best pal role) until he comes to grip with to his real self.  The life story provides lots of opportunites for subplots with peripheral characters who deliver lots of gags.  These include a gorgeous wife (Leslie Bibb), only interested in fame, two obnoxious children (Houston Tumlin and Grayson Russell) and sponsors from hell.  The best of the lot is gay French opponent Jean Girard (Sacha Baron Cohen from the Ali G show who has the upcoming BORAT coming up November) taunting poor Ricky in an outrageous French accent much worse than the ones belonging to the Monty Python French knights.
There is a fine line between a comedian being irritating and funny.  Often when one starts shouting or screaming, he goes into the irritating zone.  Two very similar comedians are Will Farrell and Tim Allen.  Tim Allen is less annoying than Farrell who often resorts to raising his voice.  But the exception here is TALLAEDA NIGHTS.  Farrell yells a lot in this film.  And so do a lot of his other actors.  The hospital screaming scene is one example.  But Farrell (of SNL) know his comedy and his screaming fits works well in his comedic setups and are funny while hardly annoying.
The racing bits are well executed and exciting enough while remaining funny.  Both Farrell and McKay know NASCAR racing.  They, and the other actors had a lot of fun making the movie and not only does it show but it rubs off on the audience as well.  TALLADEGA NIGHTS is entertaining and hits the right spots.  Ricky Bobby’s Wonder racing uniform displaying the sponsor’s word ‘wonder’ with the blue, yellow and red dots in the front clearly indicates that comedy is a ridiculous but serious business.  But the most brilliant bit about TALLADEGA NIGHTS is that it is the first film that spoofs product placement while committing to it as well.