Taladega Nights: The Legend Of Ricky Bobby

I have to admit, I'm a big fan of Will Ferrell. He seems to be one of the few fearless comedic actors out there today, and you have to admire someone who will do almost literally anything for a laugh! Well, after Anchorman and Elf, it seemed that he could move in almost any direction he wanted. Let's not talk about missteps like Kicking And Screaming or Bewitched...we'll just ignore them! This time, let's talk about Taladega Nights: The Legend Of Ricky Bobby.



This promised to be a laugh riot, after all, you've got Will Ferrell and Sasha Baron Cohen and they're sending up NASCAR, it almost writes itself, but this movie falls sadly short. Here's the basic story: Ricky Bobby is one of the great NASCAR drivers of all time, but when he begins losing and loses his confidence in his ability he falls on hard times. Sound familiar? It should, it's sort of what happened to Will's character in Anchorman! What promised to be hysterically funny, slowly spiraled in and crashed far short of the comedy runway. This is one of those comedies that all the funniest parts are in the trailer! The comedic potential of this premise is never truly realized, it seems that the writers decided that NASCAR was so funny that they didn't really need to write too much.



I'm giving Taladega Nights: The Legend Of Ricky Bobby two out of four cigars,

because, in spite of everything, there are some funny moments, just not as many as you might have wanted from this kind of movie! So, until next time, when I'll tell you about my own NASCAR driving experience...well, I just went out an made a bunch of left turns and lapped my block for three hours...until then, remember that the best movies are bad movies.