Could have (should have) been much, much better.

Rating: 1/10 (7 August 2006)

I really wanted to like this movie.
It's obvious that Will Ferrell is a talented comedian; his work on Saturday Night Live, his supporting roles in Old School and Wedding Crashers and portions of Anchorman are all very funny. However, Ferrell often seems to be playing the same character over and over, and with Talladega Nights, Ferrell has taken this a step further, essentially grafting the plot of Anchorman onto NASCAR Racing.
In theory, this should be hilarious, but in reality Talladega Nights just doesn't hold up. The problems with the film are myriad: inconsistent tone (too absurd one moment, too serious the next), unlikable characters, and a general sense that you've seen this all before. As in Anchorman, here Ferrell plays a boorish, unlikable protagonist who has ascended to the top of his game and conducts himself with varying degrees of arrogance, narcissism and idiocy; as far as I could tell, the only reason one would care about the Ricky Bobby character was because 1)you're supposed to because he is the main character of the film or 2) he was played by Will Ferrell. While Ferrell can be a charismatic guy, this charisma failed to carry over to his portrayal of Ricky Bobby, to the point that I found myself actively rooting against the Bobby character.
Additionally, the film follows a virtually identical plot arc as Anchorman, down to the presence of an antagonist who threatens with their "otherness" (in Anchorman a female news anchor, in Telledega Night a gay race car driver), a crew of moronic sycophants and yes-men to support the Ferrell character, and a denouement that strives to leave you feeling uplifted. Sadly, all these elements felt forced and stale (the Sacha Baron Cohen character is particularly grating, which is all the more lamentable considering its potential.)
Overall, while Telladega Nights did have some funny moments, nearly all of them were shown in the preview; it's telling when the funniest moments in the film come during the outtakes shown over the end credits. Considering the talent involved in this film, the way that it plays out should be considered a major disappointment.