'Ballad' swerves all over the place

Comic ideas imaginative, even when execution stalls

Robert Denerstein, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 4, 2006 at midnight

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Here are a few more or less random things you might want to know about Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, the spectacularly silly new NASCAR comedy from Will Ferrell:

• The movie includes what might be the longest male-to-male kiss on the mouth in mainstream cinema history.

• A good-ol'-boy driver is challenged by an improbably effete gay man from France, who somehow believes he'll be liberated by defeat.

• The movie follows the same general pattern as Ferrell's Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. (No surprise there. Talladega reunites Ferrell with Adam McKay, who also directed Anchorman.)

• And, oh yeah, Talladega Nights contains some funny high points, as well as some comedy crashes, but still manages to reach the checkered flag without creating too much ill will.

NASCAR was involved with this comedy, which at first seems odd because Talladega attempts to satirize the NASCAR scene, but the movie negotiates a tricky curve: Its antics are so obviously ridiculous that it's difficult to imagine NASCAR fans (or anyone else) taking offense.

Ferrell keeps the movie's motor revving. He's the well-named Ricky Bobby, a man who grew up wanting to speed. Ricky gets his chance when he moves from the pit to the driver's seat, taking over a car sponsored by Laughing Clown Malt Liquor. Ricky's best friend Carl Naughton Jr. (John C. Reilly) also becomes a driver. Their motto: "Shake and bake."

A natural behind the wheel, Ricky enjoys instant success. He rises to the top of the NASCAR heap, marries a hot blonde (Leslie Bibb) and has two sons (Houston Tumlin and Grayson Russell), who are as cocky as their old man. And Ricky isn't shy about self-congratulation.

The NASCAR races that propel Ricky to fame are one-way affairs, but Talladega Nights veers all over the place. At times, Ferrell and Reilly seem to be doing Dumb & Dumber at the racetrack. At other times, the movie drags out its jokes, Ricky Bobby's endless grace before meals for example.

Ferrell, who wrote the screenplay with director McKay, gives a strange performance, which pretty much is what we've come to expect from him. Ferrell seems to enjoy disappearing deep inside a character. He does it well, but sometimes the comedy vanishes along with him. And the Ricky Bobby character seems awfully variable, dumber than a lug nut one minute, almost normal the next.

The movie's silliest side most clearly manifests in the performance of Sacha Baron Cohen, who plays Jean Girard, a gay French driver who reads Camus behind the wheel, and shows up at a country-western bar with his husband (Andy Richter). Cohen (of HBO Ali G fame) speaks with an accent that knows no national boundaries.

In the movie's most inspired (and somewhat grisly) joke, Reilly (joined by Michael Clarke Duncan) tries to pull a knife out of Ferrell's thigh. The thing is, they use another knife to pry it out.

The movie even has a kind of dippy psychological back story. Ricky Bobby's father (Gary Cole) was a driver who never had much to do with his son. When Ricky's life skids out of control (after an accident), dad shows up to help him regain confidence and abandon his new career as a pizza delivery boy.

Meanwhile, mom (Jane Lynch) tries to whip Ricky's two sons into shape, turning them from redneck brats into polite young men.

It's probably a little unfair to criticize a NASCAR movie for product placement, but the use of many sponsored cars allows the movie to throw in plenty of brand names.

Many of the comic ideas you'll find here are imaginatively ridiculous, even if the execution doesn't always match. Still, Talladega Nights breezes toward the finish line, and even the obligatory outtakes provide some unexpected amusement.

Robert Denerstein is the film critic. Denersteinb@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5424

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