I received preview passes to Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, and initially I was excited. Although I’m not NASCAR fan at all, I do have somewhat of a liking of Will Ferrel. I liked him on SNL and loved him in Elf. He can be funny, although somewhat goofy. I was hoping Talladega Nights would prove to be one of these times, and overall, Will did a typical Will job.
However…
The supporting crap, and that’s what it was, including the other characters, the dialogue, the lame storyline and the constant stream of brand name items was so distracting and irritating that it sucked out any possible enjoyment of the movie.
Hallboy (aged 12) liked it. I left the theatre feeling like I needed to go home and scrub the kitchen floor and fold the laundry, as a desperate need to clean and organize to somehow combat the icky, low class and vulgar feeling the movie left with me.
I was inclined to see it, considering I enjoyed Old School and Anchorman a lot more than I expected. But last night I saw the full theatrical trailer for the first time, and it failed to elicit even one slight chuckle. I didn’t think that was a good sign.
The reviews are pretty good and I’ve heard a couple of people who hated Anchorman saying that they laughed at this one. Plus I like the name Ricky Bobby. heh. Ricky Bobby. It’s fun to say. It sounds so Nascar.
Good to hear some people like it. I like Farrell, but the trailers for this one don’t have a single laugh in them. I was beginning to doubt it would be worth the money.
It’s the only Ferrell movie I’ve ever been the least bit interested in and I typically despise him and do not like NASCAR at all. I’m not sure why I want to see it but I do although I will definitely wait to Netflix it instead of seeing it in the theatre.
I’ve never seen Anchorman or Old School, but have some interest in NASCAR, so went to see it today. Not everything worked, but there were some fairly funny set-pieces (the sequence where Ricky’s no-account father coaches him back into driving was a particular standout) and much of the apparently heavily improvised dialogue between Farrell and John C. Reilly had me having with laughter. Shakespeare it ain’t, but there seemed to be a bit more emotional depth to it than most such gross-out comedies, and I found myself entertained.
I did find myself wishing they’d worked a few more driver cameos into it. As it was, the only one I noticed was Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
Larry King on CNN last night had “Ricky” and “Cal” on as themselves, and kept repeating the show. I had the tv on as I slept, and kept thrashing around as if trapped in a terrible dream.
That’s what pisses me off the most. I saw a preview for the new Miami Vice movie the other day and they showed Jamie Foxx’s character saying “We’re as fast as FedEx!” ARGH! Those people don’t need advertising money! Especially not if it’s shoving out a line a screenwriter wrote that might actually, ya know, progress the storyline, instead of wasting time and breath.
Although the script for those kinds of movies is probably written by robots anyway.
Well, it wasn’t as bad as the Adamn (typo, but I like it too much to edit) Sandler movie with the remote control or the Lindsay Lohan movie with the bad luck idiocy. So, it’s the third worst movie I’ve seen this year at the drive in.
It was after “Monster House,” which I loved, so the night wasn’t a complete wash. I think my husband liked it more.
Saw it tonight. I laughed quite a bit, but I kept feeling like I should have been laughing harder than I was. Nearly every scene seemed to pull up short.
For example (why am I using a spoiler box for this?):
When Ricky Bobby shows up at his mom’s house after fighting the cougar, he shold have been WAY more messed up than he was. He had, what, a couple scratches on his face, plus it ruined his Crystal Gayle t-shirt? Please; the more fake blood they used, the funnier it would have gotten.
In general, I thought the throwaway jokes were pretty funny (like the example in the spoiler tag about the t-shirt), and the Big Set-Up Gags fell completely flat.
John C. Reilly and Sasha Baron Cohen were both terrific as always, as was Amy Adams.
