Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
It’s impossible to watch Talladega Nights without thinking of the 2004 movie Anchorman. They’re the same film, and it’s likely because both movies were directed and written by Adam McKay, with scripting help from Will Ferrell. Talladega Nights may have cars instead of news reporting, but it uses the same scattershot approach to comedy, a random collection of semi-improvised sketches tied together by a loose plot in which our comedic hero is laid low by an arch rival and then must overcome his defeat to regain his place at the top of the heap.
The only real difference between the two movies is that in Talladega the plot is even thinner, and oh yeah, Ricky Bobby doesn’t have a comedic punchline like Steve Carell. Carell can’t be replaced but the movie tries by bringing in Gary Cole to steal the movies’ best moments. Cole’s a criminally underrated comedic talent, and he does exactly as asked. He plays Ricky’s absent father, a guy whose only conversation with Ricky prior to adulthood involves the catchphrase: “If you’re not first, you’re last.” He was high at the time, but Ricky takes this one meeting with his father as a pattern to be applied to his entire life.
