Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby --- Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly

When you agree to sit down and watch a Will Ferrell vehicle, you know exactly what you are getting into each time. There are no real surprises when it comes to plot development of his comedies, and you can fully expect the same brand of humor each time out. That being said, you pretty much have to review his films on their own scale, and take it with a grain of salt when comparing them to some of the more developed comedies. I figure that this introduction is necessary, because I found Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby to be a hilarious movie, but in no way do I consider it to be a "good" movie. Now don't get me wrong, I admit to enjoying a lot of things about the film, but when all is said and done, there was more laugh about here than to actually hang my hat on when it came to the story.

'Ricky Bobby' of course has Will Ferrell in the lead role, as a race enthusiast who has grown up loving NASCAR, and found himself on the pit crew of a terrible driver. The driver is so bad, that at one point he just gets out of his car during a race to use the restroom and have a chicken sandwich. This is where Ricky Bobby volunteers to take the drivers place, and gets behind the wheel of the car for the first time. He is a natural from the start and takes to the track with a reckless abandon that could either spell success or doom for someone going almost 200 miles per hour. Racing from the back of the pack, he passes many cars, and ends up placing third in his first race. Though pretty improbable, the intent of this quick segment at the beginning is to shape his character for the remainder of the film, and show us that he does have a talent when it comes to driving.

Along with Ferrell, we are treated with John C. Reilly who plays his best friend Cal Naughton Jr. Ricky Bobby and Cal have been friends for years, and have worked their way up to the same racing team. When Ricky gets the chance to drive, and starts to have some success, the team is able to bring on a second driver, and Cal is given that slot. Together on the track, they are a force to be reckoned with, using their patented 'shake-and-bake' moves on a weekly basis. They are pretty good at racing, however, with Ricky Bobby it is either finish first, or finish last, as he never races carefully, and is continuously wrecking his sponsor’s cars. This results in a driver being brought over from France to take his place, whom you may recognize as Borat from a recent movie by the same name. As Ricky Bobby is forced to race against this new French driver, a lot of new comedic moments ensue.

Talladega Nights is a movie about racing, and in particular a few of the drivers that compete against Ricky Bobby. But really, this is just a vehicle for which the plot connects many of the jokes from beginning to end. A lot of the devices could easily be transferred to another story, and would probably work much the same, but this time it had to do with NASCAR. Will Ferrell was absolutely hilarious in my opinion, turning a phrase, and uttering many memorable one-liners that I am sure will be quoted for years. John C. Reilly was the perfect sidekick for Ferrell, and shows just how good his "acting chops" really are. The supporting cast does well to add additional humor to the story, and the writers deserve credit for just how funny the film turned out to be. In regards to overall humor, I think this is by far Ferrell's best, and even though the plot of really weak, I found myself really enjoying the film. It's a non-threatening 2 hours of movie-watching, and well worth watching in my opinion if you are looking for some good-old-fashioned Ferrell humor.