Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

[jynni]

"Save me with your voodoo!" - did they keep that?

Yeah - I believe that's in there or at least something to that effect - witchcraft/magic/somethingorother.

The couger scenes are hilarious as well as the dinner table scene.

On a side note - Amy Adams looks really good as a redhead.

Totally off topic - I actually caught half of an ep of Walker: Texas Ranger this morning. Good stuff ;- )

[laconicchick]

I think we might have to see this in the theatre. Though I am not interested in the subject matter AT ALL (in fact I dislike it), it looks pretty funny.

[bklynred]

Nascar doesn't interest me either, and I'm worried about not getting a bunch of in-jokes. But I feel like I've taken a blood oath to support all Will Ferrell movies.

[susyhomewrecker]

I think the fact that I don't like NASCAR will make it that much funnier.

[marywebgirl]

I can't imagine they would do too many intricate "in jokes" about NASCAR. My basic primer for the sport would be that it began as races between moonshine runners, North Carolina is sort of the home state of the sport, if they mention Junior that would be the son of Dale Earnhardt, a popular driver who died in a crash a few years ago, who has gone on to have his own success. The "season" is a series of races, with drivers earning points for each race, either for placing or just finishing. The series is called the Nextel Cup, formerly the Winston Cup. Venues vary, but the track very close to were I grew up in Michigan currently gets about 145,000 people for each NASCAR race, with tickets ranging in price from $45 to $110. My house is literally 10 country miles away, and the traffic used to be stopped back to my road on race days.

[johnboysmole]

I honestly think this movie was meant for those of us not into Nascar. From what I've seen in the previews, and judging by the history of the actors and writers involved, I think this is kind of an exaggerated, satirical look at car racing.

I think they made the movie to kind of make fun of that "culture" yet not in such a mean-spirited way that those people would take offense to it. I didn't feel like I wasn't getting any "in-jokes" during Anchorman, and I think Anchorman is to News Anchors as Talladega Nights is to car racing.

I think those of use who find the NASCAR world ridiculous, will love it for snark's sake and those who enjoy car racing will probably find it funny, see some familiar faces, and be able to laugh as well.

ETA: Okay I saw it.

I was a bit disappointed. I mean, don't get me wrong, Will brought the funny and Gary Cole as his father and Jane Lynch as his mother were the best. There were definite funny, silly, great moments...but I didn't find it absurd enough.

I think what probably happened was, they wanted to make fun of NASCAR, but they needed to make nice with them to get the permission to use so many things and they wanted the NASCAR fans' money, so they couldn't be too insulting.

I liked it a lot. I really did. It just didn't live up to my expectations 100%.

[laconicchick]

Yeah, I liked it, but not as much as Anchorman.

I was a little annoyed at the disgusted groans from the audience during anything to do with gayness, but it was opening night with a bunch of teenaged boys.

There were some funny lines, but I don't think any are particularly quotable... There might be some that I'm missing.

[susyhomewrecker]

I saw it last night, and had pretty much the same reaction as laconicchick. It was funny, but not as funny as Anchorman. Anchorman had a great supporting cast that kicked in whenever Will Ferrell's schtick wore thin, but in Talladega Nights, the other characters didn't have as much to do. I thought John C. Reilly and Gary Cole were great, but any scenes that didn't involve Will Ferrell interacting with one of them kind of dragged. I also thought Sacha Baron Cohen was awful; I know his French accent was meant to be humorous, but it just wasn't. I don't think I laughed once at his character. And the "gay" jokes were completely unnecessary, particularly because they squandered any opportunities to use Andy Richter.

Having said that, parts of it were hilarious. I thought the outtakes at the end with Ferrell and Reilly were great. Oh, and Walker and Texas Ranger were really cute and funny.

[jazz]

Hm. I don't know. I liked him okay in Elf but hated him in Wedding Crashers. His commercials on TV about this movie screaming and shouting really gets on my nerves I can barely tolerate him.

[laconicchick]

I spent about 10 minutes going, "Ohhhhh, that's who that was" on IMDB this morning because I recognized so many people but couldn't place them -- Ricky Bobby's mother, for one (Paula in 40-Year-Old Virgin).

I enjoyed the outtakes at the end, too.