I've always been attracted to the more outrageous, inflammatory comedians: Don Rickles, Richard Pryor, Chris Rock. Years ago, when he was back on Saturday Night Live, I had stopped being a fan of the show and found Ferrell a bit, shall I say, white bread for my tastes.
How ironic, then, that as NASCAR driver Ricky Bobby in his brand new movie, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, his sponsor is, indeed, Wonder Bread.
Well, I went tonight and laughed a whole helluva lot. Ferrell's humor is essentially good-natured. He's not a tear-down artist, and there's even some nearly touching real-life aspects to this parody, mainly in the form of the increasingly brilliant Gary Cole as his no-good father.
Which is exactly what's most right about Ferrell. He surrounds himself with funny, funny people and isn't afraid to share the spotlight or let, say, John C. Reilly (as his best friend from childhood, Cal Naughton, Jr.), riff like crazy where Ferrell is mainly reacting.
Ferrell's control is subtler and more confident that more spotlight-hogging comedians-turned-movie stars. In a post-climactic scene with Sacha Baron Cohen (yes, he who is Ali G and Borat etc, here playing Ricky Bobby's gay French existentialist rival, Jean Girard), Cohen, who's been allowed to steal his share of the movie, makes a move and Ferrell cuts it short, right in character, right on time.
I guess NASCAR has been overdue for satirization, and this is certainly the best that could have been hoped for. Cars did a great job bringing a form of NASCAR parody to animation, but that wasn't the point of the movie as much as in this one. However, with two Hollywood blockbusters this summer covering that particular Red State mega-phenomenon, can we finally say that Hollywood is in touch with something besides liberalism?
And, finally, Talladega Nights left me with one nagging question:
Did Highlander actually with the Academy Award for best movie of all time?
4 comments:
Just curious... would you consider Ferrell's Chazz Reinhold in Wedding Crashers subtle? I thought his overblown performance dragged the movie down. Of course, I haven't actually seen Taladega Nights, but I never thought subtlety was his strong suit. Then again,, maybe it is and the two Ferrel pictures I did see were an exception - Crashers and Elf.
I'm ashamed to say that I have yet to see Wedding Crashers. I'm also wondering if subtle was the right word. I guess I don't see Ferrell's comedy as obviously outrageous -- he's not John Belushi or Jack Black, a bit more internal, maybe.
Maybe I'm just full of it -- tell me after you see the dinner table scene in the first Act of Talladega...painfully funny...
Let's make a deal -- I'll see Talladega, you rent Wedding Crashers and we'll compare notes.
Deal!
(Please o please Wedding Crashers show up on HBO rather than Cinemax where you seem to be living!)
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