Ferrell and Company Strike Gold Again

Rating: 8/10 (16 January 2011)

Will Ferrell and his growing rep company provide some of their biggest laughs ever in TALLADEGA NIGHTS: THE LEGEND OF RICKY BOBBY, another of Ferrell's sports-oriented comedies that takes a popular American sport and turns it on its ears.
Ferrell plays the title character, an arrogant and dim-witted stock car driver, whose winning philosophy was based on something his father said to him as a child, whose life is altered forever when he has a serious accident and after a lengthy rehab, tries to resume his life and learns that his best friend has moved in with his wife and kids, taken over his career, and has to depend on his long lost father to take his life back.
Ferrell and Adam McKay have concocted one of the smartest and funniest screenplays in comedy history which takes effective pot shots at the stock car driving industry as well as the advertising industry as well. McKay's energized direction is also a big plus, but its Ferrell and his winning cast that really make this one shine.
Ferrell is hysterical, as always, and gets solid comic support from the always reliable John C. Reilly as Cal Naughton, Ricky's best friend who finally takes advantage of his chance to move out of Ricky's shadow, Leslie Bibb as Ricky's gold-digging wife, David Keocher and Michael Clarke Duncan as members of Ricky's pit crew, Jane Lynch as Ricky's mom, and in a performance that comes as close as I have seen anyone to steal a movie from Will Ferrell, Gary Cole as Ricky's derelict Dad, whose training sessions to get Ricky back on the track are hysterical. Sascha Baron Cohen provides some giggles as well in a sexually androgynous variation of his BORAT character.
The film provides solid laughs from beginning to end, especially for Ferrell fans. Check out this comic gem.