Great comedy

Rating: 8/10 (23 February 2015)

The excellent cast go all-out to be as silly as possible in this great Will Ferrell vehicle (excuse the pun). Ferrell plays his usual outrageously spoiled man-child (as in Anchorman) who is forced to grow up when his hi jinks catch up with him and he's cast out of his successful world. For me, though, the funniest character is the French racing star played by Sacha Baron-Cohen - a hysterical portrait of a pompous snob who reads Camus and sips coffee in his car while casually overtaking the Nascar field, and who freaks out everyone in the bigoted, good old boys racing scene with his gay lifestyle. But like Anchorman, there are so many great scenes, such as when Ricky Bobby's bimbo wife switches to his best friend (John C. Reilly) when Ricky is losing; any scenes Jane Lynch is in, as Ferrell's mother; or the way Ricky unashamedly advertises everything from cake mix to tampons. The movie is just full of steady, reliable laughs.