AboveDeepBuggy
Some things I liked some I did not.
Micah Lloyd
Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.
Stephanie
There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
spiritpresent
Will Ferrell's worst movie he has ever made. Comedic timing is awful, almost as much as the plot as the movie. You keep hoping he dies throughout the movie, but are disappointed when he lives. All the movie is about them making fun of southern people and NASCAR fans. All it is basically is portraying southerners as unintelligent morons, and the vast majority of the jokes revolve around that.
FlashCallahan
NASCAR stock car racer Ricky Bobby is a national hero because of his win at all costs approach. He and his loyal racing partner Cal Naughton Jr, are a fearless duo, known as "Shake" and "Bake" by their fans for their ability to finish so many races in first and second positions, with Cal always in second place. When flamboyant French Formula One driver Jean Girard challenges them 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......Here's the thing about Will Ferrell, It seems that whenever he appears in a sports based comedy, they tend to be very poor, and not very funny at all. Kicking And Screaming, Semi-Pro, Blades Of Glory were really poor comedies, and appeared to be mocking the fans of the actual sport.This is the best of a very bad bunch, but that's really faint praise, because again, it appears that McKay is doing nothing more than mocking the sports fans and the people who partake.Ferrell is fine, basically playing the king fool in a ship of fools.It's far too long, and although Cole is the best thing in the film, they really stretch out the training aspect of the film.If you like your films with foul mouthed children, idle threats to vulnerable people, and choc full of xenophobia and homophobia, be my guest. I think I laughed once, and that scene was in the trailer.
jimbo-53-186511
Ricky Bobby (Will Ferrell) and Cal Naughton Junior (John C Reilly) are life long friends and teammates on the NASCAR circuit. They are both the best drivers on the circuit and regularly finish first and second - this is down to their Shake and Bake method that they employ in order to take out the lead racer. Cal selflessly allows Ricky to win every time meaning that Ricky is dubbed the hero and is the one that hogs the limelight. However, their reign at the top is threatened by the arrival of ace French driver Jean Girard (Sacha Baron Cohen).Adam McKay has dabbled in satire previously with the original Anchorman film and its more recent sequel. These films were mostly successful in this respect as well as being reasonably funny. For me, McKay has been less successful when he's dabbled in other genres - his buddy cop film The Other Guys was beyond awful. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby is McKay's satirical look at the sport of speedway which thankfully does work fairly well...For me, Will Ferrell is a frustrating actor as I find that he can either be really irritating or fairly amusing. His performance very much depends on the material that he's given and the director that he works with. McKay seemed to allow Ferrell to be more natural in both Anchorman and Talladega Nights resulting in Ferrell being allowed to be funny and sort of endearing rather than being outright annoying likes he's been in other films. Sacha Baron Cohen is also excellent here in what can be described as fairly comfortable territory for him - he's essentially playing another quirky character with a ridiculous accent and most importantly entertains the audience whilst doing it. Baron Cohen plays a gay character here, but actually manages to make his character funny without being nauseating or over-the top (like he was in Bruno). Leslie Bibb plays the stock clichéd empty-headed shallow trophy-wife in such an over-the-top way that she's actually quite fun to watch. McKay's characterisation here is spot on and what they lack in depth they do make up for by just being fun to watch.McKay takes some risks here by casting a character that's gay and actually making fun of the character for being gay but I found many of the jokes to be relatively inoffensive and many jokes here lean to being more suggestive or being used by way of double-entendre (which are arguably smarter ways to gain laughs). Ricky's foul-mouthed kids do grate a bit from time to time, but McKay does address this issue when the kids met their grandmother and she gives them some much needed discipline.The film does lose some momentum in the second half when things start to fall apart for Ricky and we see him trying to re-build some of the remnants of his shattered life and career, but thankfully there are still plenty of amusing scenes (his dad coaching him and his scenes as a pizza delivery guy were funny and still helped to keep things moving).All in all, Talladega nights may not keep the laughs consistently coming and at close to two hours it is a little on the long side, but despite the generous running time the film still moved along relatively smoothly and I still found plenty to enjoy here.
SnoopyStyle
Ricky Bobby (Will Ferrell) grew up wanting to go fast. His absentee dad returns one day at school. He leaves with parting words "If you ain't first, you're last." He grows up to be the best NASCAR driver around who either wins or crashes. He marries hot groupie Carley (Leslie Bibb). His best friend is Cal Naughton Jr. (John C. Reilly) who always helps Ricky but never gets any help in return. Their boss Larry Dennit Jr. (Greg Germann) inherited the team and hates Ricky. He hires new super gay French driver Jean Girard (Sacha Baron Cohen) from Formula 1 and he's really good. After a crash, he has a mental breakdown while Jean has taken over. Meanwhile he can't seem to get his speed back.Everybody is a wild and crazy character. It needs a straight man for the team. It's completely insane. It's funny at first but the craziness does get tiresome. Without a straight man, this doesn't take a break or allow the audience to see the jokes reacted to. Even Ron Burgundy has Veronica Corningstone. There are some truly hilarious laughs like Ricky stabbing himself in the leg. I smiled for much of the movie. I just didn't have enough big gut busting laughs.
