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Friday, August 4, 2006
You could blow a gasket laughing at Ferrell's 'Talladega Nights'
Two years ago, Will Ferrell had his biggest critical hit with a razor-sharp comedy called "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy," which deftly satirized the '70s, television news and the superegotism of one empty-headed broadcast personality.
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View all photosWith "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," Ferrell once again joins forces with writer-director Adam McKay for a similar satire of sports movies, the ever-growing phenomenon of NASCAR racing and the egotism of one empty-headed Southern driver.
This time the model works even better. Like most extended sketch comedies, this one can't quite sustain itself for a feature length, but for two-thirds of its running time it's hilarious. It is Ferrell's best movie and the summer's funniest comedy so far.
Taking the form of a farcical biopic, it starts with the early life of its hero: his birth in the back seat of a moving car, his obsession with speed as a toddler, his no-good father (Gary Cole) ingraining him with the lesson that winning is everything.
In a quick leap, he's a NASCAR star, with the ultimate trophy wife (Leslie Bibb), a nation of fawning fans and $20 million in endorsements. But he loses it all when his nerve is shaken in a smash-up and his supremacy is challenged by a gay French Formula One driver (Sacha Baron Cohen, aka Ali G).
As it goes through the cliched paces of the sports-movie formula -- and makes mincemeat of them -- the film's weakest element is its subplot with the French driver, which is filled out with a string of bashing gags that don't quite fly.
Otherwise, the film comes together to be a dead-on satire of a movie genre, an expert comedy of character and an almost perfect vehicle for Ferrell, who shines in a half-dozen or more of the most elaborately crafted and howlingly funny routines he's ever concocted.
But Ferrell is not the whole show. Always generous as a star, he allows the rest of the cast -- John C. Reilly as his best friend; Jane Lynch as his mother; even the actors playing his two kids -- to have some of the film's best scenes. Rare for a star vehicle, this is a true ensemble comedy.
Even more surprising, director McKay -- in the midst of all the anarchy -- manages to capture the white-knuckle appeal of NASCAR. Though they're done for comedic effect (the hero wins one race in reverse), his racing scenes are not just thrown away. There's genuine excitement to them, and "Talladega" works as a cockeyed action movie.
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