My boy Chuck pretty much nailed it for me on Will Ferrell who we both think is a pretty funny dude.  I love Ferrell in almost all his cameo supporting roles, but not so much in his starring vehicles.  I thought ‘Anchorman’ was O.K., ‘Kicking and Screaming’ was fairly worthless, ‘Bewitched’ wasn’t much better, and ‘Elf’ I could have done without as well.  But Big Earl in the ultimately forgettable ‘Starsky and Hutch’ or Chazz in ‘The Wedding Crashers’?  Come on!  Classic!  Or how about Frank in ‘Old School’ or Mugatu in ‘Zoolander’ that stuff is just too funny.  This brings us to the latest Farrell vehicle ‘Talladega Nights:  The legend of Ricky Bobby’ which though it had it’s moments it still misses the comedy mark way more often than it hits.

Ferrell is the namesake Ricky Bobby who is addicted to speed baby!  Ricky starts out as a lowly jackhand on a forgotten NASCAR squad but is elevated to driver when the teams primary driver stops for a snack and makes a phone call during a pit stop.  Ricky’s ascent is a meteoric one which includes the prerequisite hot wife Carley (Leslie Bibb), two profane children in Walker and Texas Ranger, and a loyal best friend in Cal (John C. Reilly).  Things go bad for Ricky when he crashes during a race with his new arch rival Frenchman Jean Girard (Sasha Baron Cohen) totally stripping Ricky of his need for speed.  Ricky’s wayward father Reece Bobby (Gary Cole) pops back in his son’s life to assist Ricky in getting his mojo back and reclaim what is rightfully his.

There is some mighty good humor to be had in ‘Talladega Nights’ to be sure.  Watching Ricky and the Bobby family pray to the baby Jesus is simply hilarious, and though I hate bratty kids in cinema, the Bobby children prove to be the exception as

they are not simply bratty but down right felonious in their behavior.  I’m sure Hollywood is literally crawling with blonde bimbos who appear in MAXIM and pop in this movie or that movie here and there, but rare is the one with talent, and I’ll have you know that at least on a comedic level, Leslie Bibb is one with some major ability as Ricky’s slutty wife with the magical breast that make men faint (literally – and no, you don’t get to see ‘em). 

John C. Reilly, whether he’s Mr. Cellophane doing a little sidestep or playing the incredibly dense Cal Naughton Jr. seems to be an actor with limitless range in his repertoire and Michael Clark Duncan is his usual booming voice oppressive self.  Borat, as the overly gay Frenchman (Making fun of the French never gets old) was hit and miss on the joke department, but Sasha Cohen is a comedic genius as well as a phenomenal ice skater.  There was a scene though, near the end of the movie, where Ricky Bobby and Pierre Girard kiss each other on the race track after a big race (I’m thinking that doesn’t happen in real NASCAR).  The thing that was odd about the kiss, and I know this all acting and what not, but Will Ferrell put way more passion into kissing Sasha Baron Cohen than he put into kissing his pretty red headed assistant Susan (Amy Adams), but that’s just me being silly though.  Does make one wonder…

 But most of the blame as to why ‘Talladega Nights’ seemed way to long and it’s jokes spread out way to thin must be laid squarely on ME!  One day I will learn, when I get a DVD, NOT to watch the unrated longer version.  More Jokes!  More Hijinx!  More Hilarity!  No, you see there’s a damn good reason they cut that junk out when they released it to theaters, and it was because it sucked.  But they sucked me in anyway.  The longer DVD version of ‘The Wedding Crashers’ was not as funny as the more condensed theatrical release.  The longer DVD version of ‘Daredevil’ did not make the movie any better.  Even a movie I absolutely loved, ‘The 40-year old Virgin’ was better in its theatrical cut than the optional, longer, unrated DVD cut of the film.  I hear there’s a new longer version of Peter Jackson’s King Kong.  You’re freaking kidding me right?  I suppose it runs three days long instead of the theatrical two days?  The longer version of ‘Talladega Nights’ takes a 100 minute movie and tacks 25 minutes of extra unfunnyness.  And I’m not going to go back and watch the original version, so there.

Since every one who drops 600 bucks (retail – 2.6 million dollars if you get it on EBay) on a Playstation 3 is getting a Blue-Ray version of this film in their package, I strongly suggest that watch the theatrical version and leave the extended version on the cutting room floor, as the editors of this film originally did.  You’ll be better for it.