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Talladega Nights: Ballad of Ricky Bobby
3 of 4 Stars
Rated: PG-13 for Sexual Jokes, Crude Homor and Language
Starring: Will Ferrell, Sacha Baron Cohen, John C. Reilly, Michael Clarke
Duncan, Amy Adams
Directed by: Adam McKay
Produced by: Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, Jimmy Miller
Talladega Nights is the story of a man named Rickey Bobby (Will Farrell of Elf
and Anchorman) who was born with racing his blood and the need for speed.
One day while working at the race track as a pit boy, his driver decides to
take a break in the middle of the race. Leaving Ricky Bobby to finish the
race. He astounds the audience and places third. Ricky Bobby turns from
being the nice and lovable guy who everyone knew and loved to an
egotistical and self absorbed champion. As time goes on, Ricky Bobby is
involved in what appears to be a horrific accident, which turns out to be
nothing at all. However this accident leaves Ricky Bobby emotionally
tormented.
Talladega Nights so far sounds like a serious movie right? Actually, this
movie is far from it. Talladega Nights is probably the funniest movies of the
year and certainly is going to be a crowd pleaser, however the movie does
tend to run dry after about an hour, flooded with the same jokes and gags
throughout. With that being said, I really enjoyed this movie and I did tend to
laugh quite a bit. The humor consists mostly of your standard issue potty
humor and sexual innuendo and the mocking of religious institutions (Yes,
Even Tom Cruise).
There is a running joke through the whole movie that some might find
offensive and to be honest I am not sure if I do or not. I am still thinking about
what I think about it. During the family dinner, Ricky Bobby opens the prayer
with “Dear Baby Jesus”. This leads to a 5 or 10 minute jokes about what
people at the table like to call Jesus and how they like to personalize him to
their own lives. Now being a Christian, I believe that having a personal
relationship with Jesus Christ VITAL, but a on going discussion which is
specifically meant to be a joke, makes one think. We find out later that Ricky
Bobby’s mother is in fact a pretty strong Christian and is the main influence in
his children’s life.
Parents need to be aware that this is NOT a kids. Although the kids turn out
to be wonderful in the end, through the Christian leadership of their
grandmother. Ricky Bobby’s kids are two of the most disrespectful children
on earth. They cuss all the time and berate adults. Again, they turn out
awesome but their foul mouths and disrespect are almost intolerable.
In the end, Ricky Bobby is a very fun movie if your expectations are not set to
high and you just want to go out and have a good laugh. It is your run of the
mill comedy with lots of potty humor and sexual innuendos with a few good
moral and necessary messages. I would say that this movie is really geared
toward older teens and adults.
Warning to Parents: LOTS of potty humor, language and sexual innuendos.
Although they tend to make fun of homosexuality, there are a bunch of
scenes showing men kissing. The nemesis of Ricky Bobby is a “Gay French
Racer”. Its pretty funny but not something that kids need to be seeing, none
the less adults.
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