Silly and amusing rather than funny but good fun if you are in an undemanding mood

Rating: Null/10 (10 September 2007)

As a child, Ricky Bobby was heavily influenced by the "second is nothing" mantra of his amateur race driver and regular absentee father. As an adult he is working as one of the pit crew for the worst team in NASCAR when he gets the chance to drive and marks himself out with his determination and drive to win. Replacing the regular driver, Bobby starts to dominate the sport and quickly finds himself on top of the NASCAR world. However when a French formula 1 champion joins the sport, Bobby finds himself not only having to come to terms with a competitor but also the injury and trauma associated with a massive crash.
Having enjoyed some similar comedies recently so although I never made it to the cinema, I did want to check out Talladega Nights on DVD in the hope of good laughs in a silly sports movie. The thing is, conceptually it is all well and good, delivering a silly concept with a wonderfully absurd load of dialogue to match the characters. On paper (and in the clips) it looked great and here and there it did produce the odd laugh from me. Problem is, in the delivery it is not as funny as I would have liked. It is amusing though and I did enjoy the way it affectionately digs at the very male and American sport of Nascar (does any other country in the world actually care about it?) in the characters and the dialogue.
The big budget allows for plenty of car action but, with me caring so little about the sport, it was not really that engaging even if it was noisy. Personally I would have preferred a lot more work to have gone into the script rather than the action because maybe it could have just been a bit funnier. The cast are mostly good though and it did make me think that they could have done more with the material if it had been stronger. Ferrell is pretty good and enjoys his character but mostly he is outdone by a great performance from Reilly. Support is good from Duncan, Cole and others, but Tumlin and Russell caught my eye with two tremendously foul-mouthed characters. Cohen is part of the wonderful silliness that the film wears as a strength and I really enjoyed his brief turn here.
Overall then, consistently amusing rather than as funny as it should been. The cast do well even if the material doesn't let them be the best they could have been. Silly stuff then but reasonably enjoyable if you are in an undemanding mood.