Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby: Fast, Furious and Stupidly Funny

Will Ferrell (Anchor Man) plays Ricky Bobby, a man who was born for racing cars. He is a man who was born in a race car going almost 100 mph. He is a man who grew up saying “I wanna go fast.” When we finally see Ricky Bobby grown up, he is working in the pits for a Nascar driver who is so bad he doesn’t care if he wins, loses or even finishes a race. With the ensuing threat of losing their sponsors, the team elects to throw someone – anyone in to replace him. And, guess who gets picked.

You guessed it. Ricky Bobby jumps into the race car and away he goes on a fast track to blind success. He marries the “real hot chick”. He has two monster sons. He wins races and gains popularity, and gets rich beyond his wildest dreams. And, he has countless sponsors. Ricky ends up getting too big for his britches.

Where does Ricky Bobby wind up? He gets into a wreck trying to beat a homosexual French driver, Jean Girard (Sacha Baron Cohen) with a broken arm. He winds up so traumatized by the accident he thinks he’s paralyzed. He thinks he’s on fire every time he gets into a race car. He keeps his best friend, Cal Naughton Jr. (John C. Reilly; Magnolia, Days of Thunder) in the #2 position. He loses his wife to his best friend. Then, Ricky Bobby is forced to move back in with his mama and winds up working as pizza delivery man.

Of course, you couldn’t have a movie like Talladega Nights: The Ballad ofRicky Bobby without a comeback of some kind. After a struggle to fight his fears, Ricky Bobby gets back on the bandwagon again, and pushes himself to the limit. He beat Jean Girard, and wins the Talladega 500 – as far as we’re concerned. Then, it’s so touching when Ricky, his mama, his newly reformed offspring, his new girl, and his drunk, has-been, pot-dealing, no-good daddy drive off together – to be “thrown out of an Applebee’s”.

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby can be summed up as a mockery of Nascar and the drivers that race in the Daytona 500. It can be summed up as another Anchor Man for Will Ferrell. But, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby is summed up best by Ricky’s own description. This movie isn’t a thinking movie, it’s a doing movie. And, what it does is make you laugh. And, Talladega Nights does quite a lot of that.