As cliché as this sounds, it's a guilty pleasure.

Rating: 6/10 (30 March 2008)

From the days of the trailer for "Old School," Will Ferrell has tried to present himself within his post-Saturday Night Live career as both the new Steve Martin and John Belushi at the same time. The trouble is, he tends to fail at it. I stated in my review of "Stranger Than Fiction" that I liked this movie better than "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy," yet for some reason, I can't think of why. I could give you some aspect of what makes the movie so good though.
Ricky Bobby was born in the back seat of a souped-up 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle, racing it's way to the hospital. Throughout much of his childhood, Ricky lived with his single mother(Jane Lynch) and faced an uncontrollable urge to jump in a car and put the pedal to the metal, and sporadic visits by his father(Gary Cole), a "semi-professional" race car driver, and part-time dope-dealer. Wow. He was as anxious to get his driver's license as I was when I was a little kid. As an adult, Ricky ends up joining the Dennit Racing Team's NASCAR pit crew. But when the driver wastes too much time in the pit, Ricky takes over, wins the race, and immediately becomes a star, despite the objections of the younger half of the father & son(Pat Hingle & Greg Germann) team owners. Even better, a female fan(Leslie Bibb) flashes him and he marries her, and they have two kids who are spoiled rotten. Oh, but somebody new is about to join the Dennit Racing Team; a French Formula One racing champion(Sacha Baron Cohen). Worse than that, a GAY French Formula One racing champion. Even worse than that, he's GOOD! Talladega Nights doesn't make fun of the French, so much as it makes fun of how certain Americans, especially rednecks from the old south view the French. And it's competition with this Frenchman that leads to his downfall. But that's not enough for Larry Dennit, who talks Bobby's wife into marrying his best friend. I often get the feeling Carley Bobby secretly works for Dennit Racing. After returning home to his mother with his two kids, and meeting his father again, Dad tries to get him back into racing. It seems like it might work, but even that falls apart.
Molly Shannon is also great as Larry Dennit Jr.'s drunken, orgasmically-addicted wife. From time to time I've wondered if Ferrell had a thing for her, since they've been in so many projects together. But Amy Adams elevates this movie, just as Robin Williams has been known to elevate really bad comedies. As nerdy race-team secretary turned lover Susan, she makes two faux-inspirational speeches, the first of which sends both the main character and the movie right back on track. Her role in this movie is the least comedic, even less than pit crew head Lucius Washington(Michael Clarke Duncan), and yet you have to pinch yourself to remind yourself that this is a joke.
As I pointed out, the movie doesn't really bash the French. In all honesty, it doesn't bash Southerners that hard either. If they really wanted to bash them, they could make them klansmen or idiotic hillbillies oblivious to the modern world. I never even saw a single confederate flag at any of the races, which would've made the movie a little more authentic. Nevertheless, though it's hardly the comedy epic that "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," "National Lampoon's Animal House," or "The Blues Brothers," were, it's still amusing and enjoyable enough.