2006-Aug-7 - "The Ballad of Ricky Bobby": A rollickin good time
Will Ferrell seems to be the King Midas of comedy these days- (wait- or is it Adam Sandler?- I mean look at that brain-dead premise for a film "Click" which really should have flopped but raked in well over a 100 mill. instead)- anyway, I guess both have a claim to the throne.
Ferrell's newest venture with director and writing partner Adam McKay "Talladega" took in a whopping 47 mill. this past weekend. The question is: Was the film deserving of such a kitty? Well, yeah, kind of. But, really, what productions are truly worthy of such a large sum of dough?
OK enough with the philosophical movie questions so here's the deal with "Talladega". There are flashes of brilliance, but overall it falls short of the upper pantheon of Ferrell films: namely "Anchorman" and "Old School". Now I realize a film should be judged on its own merits independently of that which has come before, BUT it's only natural to want to compare.
There are probably three or four knee-slapping, tear-inducing scenes in "Talladega Nights" with a lot of hearty chuckles in between. These are the type of moments when the audience wonders if Will & the gang are on script or just making the shit up. The grace scene, for example, is gold.
A number of great performances were turned in here as well. Gary Cole, as Ricky's wayward dad, is excellent as always. So too are Ricky's smack-talkin sons, played by newcomers Huston Timlin and Grayson Russell. Another brightspot is Jack McBrayer as Glenn the overtly effeminate crew member who seems to have the capper in each of his scenes.
Despite being a quality comedy, there were a few problems I had with Talladega. For one, several jokes were killed during the racing sequences due to the simple fact that the actors couldn't be heard over the reving engines. And speaking of racing, I went into theater thinking: "Allright, someone's gonna finally lampoon NASCAR and its legions good 'ol boy fans!" BUT I was sorely mistaken. Sure there was a little ribbing but not much. Maybe Ferrell's been told that he and NASCAR have similar fan bases and so it would be unwise to make too much fun.
Lastly, and this is due to the fact I'm a huge "Anchorman" fan, David Koechner (Ron Burgandy's good buddy Champ Kind) has little more than a cameo in this film. Now, if you're going to give the guy a cameo, put him in one scene. But if you're going to put him in 3 scenes and give him 4 lines after he rocked in his last major role, it just doesn't compute.
BEER RATING: Pilsner Urquell (6.5 out of 10).
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2006-Aug-8 - 6.5 -really? |
| Posted by Anonymous |
So you liked "Nacho Libre" better than "Ricky Bobby"?
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About Me
For all of you pencil pushers, cubicle clerks, dock workers, and govt. employees out there, HIT has combined 2 of your favorite things: beer and movies!
We will review movies and grade them with beer! Now, some of you may disagree with our ranking system. For example, you might consider Miller Lite to be the best beer. And you may also feel that "Independnce Day" is one of the best films ever. Not coincidentally on our scale, "Independence Day" receives a Miller Lite (or 3). So as you see films made in bad taste receive a bad tasting beer for their score. Fun, no?
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