Hola all. Massawyrm here.

If there’s one thing that can definitively be said about Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby it’s that it’s different. Very different. For anyone who’s taken a gander at its mind numbing trailer and thought “Wow, the same old Will Ferrell crap!" I’m here to tell you that you’re wrong. This is brand new Will Ferrell crap. But it’s crap a whole mess of people are gonna like quite a bit.

Frankly I’m surprised they changed the name of this from Hee Haw: The Movie, but I guess that’s all fine and good since they cut out all the scenes of the cute blonde girl popping out of the corn field to say “That’s a Funny!’ I mean, come on, it’s a two-hour Jeff Foxworthy joke without Jeff Foxworthy. Infinitely stupid American redneck NASCAR drivers battle to defeat an incomprehensibly silly gay French Formula One driver. Can you say Stroker Ace 2: The Next Generation? I’d be shocked to find out that this hadn’t already been done as a skit on Blue Collar TV.

But while all the staples of the typical Will Ferrell man-child shtick are present and accounted for, this film actually plays a whole lot better than any of his previous leading efforts. As someone who attempted to claw his own eyes out during Anchorman (a film that challenged me to break my long standing rule of never walking out on a film, and very nearly bested me) and someone who managed to pull out several clumps of his own hair while enduring the gawdawful train wreck that was Kicking and Screaming, I can honestly say that this is heads and shoulders above those films. This one is at worst very tolerable. At best? Well, it took several of my Will Ferrell hating friends and forced them to give in. They succumbed. They laughed. One of them even saw it again two nights later. And this is a guy who has never said one good word about Ferrell.

Talladega Nights is a weird little film. It’s fresh and somewhat original – something of a parody that never acknowledges directly what it’s satirizing. At times it seems to be having fun with Days of Thunder, as well as virtually every JOCK driven film ever made, and yet it never tries to hit you with references or lifted dialog. This plays with the concepts rather than the films themselves. And in its own little way, it seems to be the next evolution of the Zucker brand of comedy – without ever breaking the laws of reality to make the jokes like the Zucker’s are accustomed to doing. And that’s what’s so damned weird about this. As ri-damn-fucking-diculous as it gets, it’s only a handful of characters that go over the top. Everything else, from the rest of the cast to the laws of physics themselves, seem to be firmly rooted in reality. And that’s where the humor for this film is almost entirely derived.

Gone are many of the elements that people have begun to consistently complain about with this particular crop of comedians. For example, there’s no endless stream of the same cameos we’ve seen time and again. No Wilson brothers. No Tim Robbins. No Vince Vaughn. They even managed to somehow keep Ben Stiller off the set. That’s not to say there aren’t any other comedians or celebrities in small roles – but it’s never “OH MY GAWD! LOOK! BEN STILLER AS A MEXICAN!” Everyone gets used to their fullest and it never takes you out of the universe they create for this.

But it is retarded and asks you to go along with the fact that people this stupid haven’t killed themselves long ago after uttering the phrase “Hey Ya’ll, watch this!” And that’s the real demarcation point in Talladega Nights. Can you enjoy 2 hours of redneck jokes and people giving ludicrous speeches to bewildered audiences? If you can, then this will no doubt be the comedy highlight of your summer. If not, well, honestly it’s not nearly as terrible as it sounds, but it’s got little to offer. There’s simply no subtlety, no sharply refined humor and no high-minded gags to amuse those who want a little more from their satire. It’s lowbrow all the way.

And I swear to god it’s almost entirely funded by product placement. I haven’t seen a film this overloaded with direct product references and gags since Josie and the Pussycats. And like many comedies before it, it only seems to draw attention to itself because at the very same time, it wants to make fun of product placement. It’s an old gag and it can still work, but for my money it will never be done better than when George Clooney did it in Return of the Killer Tomatoes.

I can honestly say I didn’t hate it. And for a Will Ferrell comedy, that’s a big deal. Those not a fan of Ferrell might want to actually give this a look – at least when it’s out on DVD, or if your friends try to drag you along to it this weekend. This could be the one that turns you around. I didn’t care for it, but I did chuckle a few times, and that’s something. The bulk of the audience I saw it with, on the other hand, really ate it up. Ferrell fans are gonna love the ever living shit out of this.

While it didn’t win me over, I’ve gotta give credit where credit is due. This isn’t your run of the mill comedy. While the premise and many of the jokes are stale, the structure and comedic stylings come across as something we haven’t completely seen before. Adam McKay and Ferrell seem to be evolving – and it makes me fairly curious to see what they do next together. And that’s a state of mind I never expected from this film.

Highly recommended for Will Ferrell fans and anyone who never tires of redneck humor.

Until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em. I know I will.

Massawyrm

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