Talledega Slump

Rating: 3/10 (25 November 2006)

I have to disclose that I watched this on an airplane, and there may have been some absolutely gut-busting hilarity in the film that I missed because the sound was bad. I'm hoping there was, because otherwise the the best part of this movie was the outtakes.
I found Will Ferrell to be funny playing a supporting character in Old School. Although Elf seemed like the same joke over and over, I admired Ferrell's willingness to search so hard for new ways to act like an idiot. Anchorman Ron Burgundy had its brief moments - and Christina Applegate is very competent - but it went a bit downhill after the fight scene. Perhaps Will Ferrell reached his pinnacle with Bewitched, where he was joined by not one, but many extremely competent actors - I don't think Bewitched was that great, but compared to Ferrell's previous offerings, it was Shakespeare.
Talledega Nights put a similar character to Ron Burgundy behind the wheel of a race car in what should have been an enjoyable parody of Nascar. Since Nascar is a cultural event that offers so much to work with, I had high hopes for entertainment. The rise and fall of Nascar collectible plate prices alone could have kept the movie going for half an hour, and the name of Ferrell's character showed an awareness of the potential.
This film, though, seemed to follow the same pattern of your more recent Will Ferrell movies. In fact, they're so predictable I may start writing scripts for him in my spare time using the following formula: man has supercilious personality plus everything; man loses everything (here's where Will usually runs around in his BVDs) and is in depths of despair; at last, man is inspired, no longer supercilious, and rises to the occasion while learning a heart-warming yet gut-busting lesson.
For some reason, Nascar didn't offer enough to parody, and we had to add a homosexual relationship to the mix. If the attempt to parody Nascar wasn't offensive to true Nascar fans, I'm sure the French race driver kissing his male lover put the nail in the coffin. I'm disappointed the film stooped to this level of humor when there is so much available in the Bible Belt.
To haul out a quick soapbox, I am compelled to point out that the state of contemporary comedic film is beyond sorry. We've got literally thousands of stand-up comics throughout the country with immense skills. We have classic films as guidelines, ranging from gross-out to urbane, that are hysterically funny. And then Hollywood churns out a film like this one. This is the best we have to offer? When you think that these films are exported to the international market, it's no wonder other countries find us loud and annoying.
The outtakes indicated there was a lot of ad-libbing on the set, and I can only hope that the best lines were lost because the ones in the film were either tired, about three lines too long (oh, it's a joke. I get it), or just lame.
I'm sure that means there will be a sequel. Perhaps it, like this, will pass the time on an airplane. There wasn't much else to recommend Talledega Nights.