"Ricky Bobby" straddles the fence, but avoids damaged goods.

Rating: 6/10 (8 August 2006)

I am now entirely convinced that Will Ferrell is not leading-man material, but a fantastic supporting actor. His brand of humor can never stand up to 2 full hours of scrutiny, but when tossed in intermittently among contributions by other comic actors, he performs splendidly. For example, "Old School" was arguably the best dumb comedy of the decade, because it combined his hilarious outbursts with the more subtle talents of Luke Wilson and Vince Vaughn. The same goes for "Anchorman", where he was aided by the incredible Steve Carrell among others, and Zoolander, where he played second fiddle to Ben Stiller. His leading roles, however, tended to drag on and lose my interest very quickly, such as in "Kicking and Screaming" and the atrocious "Bewitched." He simply can't yell loudly and talk in a strange voice for 2 solid hours and expect people to be continually captivated by the same stuff.
With that said, "Talladega Nights" falls right between the two categories. Ricky Bobby is clearly the principal character in the film, and the primary supporting characters just aren't funny at all, except in instances of superb writing that no one could screw up. However, Ferrell and McKay were clever enough to dole out screen time to unexpected people, and rely frequently on physical comedy, so that I was never fed up. The people who gave this movie a 10 (a shocking 24%??) are clearly under 14 or think that new-age comedy is the only film genre there is, buttt I'd still say it was a satisfactory experience. I'd probably see it again if I was asked, and I still chuckle sometimes remembering the more hilarious bits.