Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

Genres: Action/Adventure, Comedy and Sports
Running Time: 1 hr. 50 min.
Release Date: August 4th, 2006 (wide)
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, language, drug references and brief comic violence.
Distributors: Sony Pictures Releasing

Director: Adam McKay

JJ Rating: B+

I saw the previews for this movie and laughed at the bits that they showed in there. I repeated them all day long while with my friend and then we went and saw it and I still laughed at the parts that were in the movie that I laughed at in the preview. I was very amused. However, I do think it lasted too long for my liking.

I like the humor that was in this movie because it made me laugh out loud and that makes it good. It made me want to laugh and that is also good. Since it is a NASCAR thing there is expected to be product placement and that is what there was. But the way that it was done made it all the more funny. They had Ricky Bobby product place a lot of random things that were major products for the most part.

His children were very rough around the edges and it would do them good to get smacked around the room a few times but that doesn’t mean they weren’t funny. I laughed so hard during the dinner table scene. That was one long scene but it was so funny. The kids were talking back to grandfather and then Ricky Bobby going on and on about which Jesus he liked. I was really amused by that part.

The best part of the preview was where Ricky Bobby thought he was on fire and he was running around. That scene in the movie was still funny even after seeing it a few billion times on TV and at the theater. I really love that line about Tom Cruise it’s just so funny.

Ricky Bobby’s dad is so apathetically funny with how he just acts like, “Oh I can’t change enjoy me or not.” Then that cougar part was great. His dad was funny and his mother was just as funny when she tried to straighten out his rotten kids. Oh and Applebee’s part in all this was great. I love that and how their commercial makes a funny cameo.

Ricky Bobby’s rival is a French man who gets so close to talk it almost is like they will kiss. That was making me lean far into my chair to get away from that kind of view because anyone getting that close and talking makes me uncomfortable. It was also amusing how he would describe things to Ricky Bobby and also how he pronounced his name. Spit everywhere I do believe.

I got a little tired of the movie because of how long it was taken to finish and I don’t like comedies that last almost 2 hours and feel like it. That ruins the fun for me. But because it did not stop being funny and had a good thing going during the credits it didn’t annoy me too much that it lasted longer than it should have.

It is a good comedy and it’s different enough to make it something enjoyable on a second viewing if I had to. But I don’t know if it’s one I’ll be buying. The funny thing is that they change the name of the movie and in the movie itself it’s still the same name they had before the change. That amused me.

If you like Will Ferrell then you will not be disappointed in the movie and how it plays out. You will laugh. I laughed and I love laughing. Saying Ricky Bobby is fun also. Go on and say it. See told you so.