Talladega Nights delivers laughs

How many jokes can you make about rednecks, NASCAR and the South? Jeff Foxworthy seems to have made a career out of it, so its not surprising that Talladega Nights writers Will Ferrell and Adam McKay can make an entire movie's worth. As funny as the movie is, however, they come up short.

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby was released on Friday, August 4. The movie is the second collaboration between Ferrel and McKay, whose prior work spawned Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Like Anchorman, this movie chronicles the life of a guy who thinks he is far better than the mediocre man.

The plot is standard fare for this genre. The beginning of the movie recounts Ricky's formative years, from his birth in the back of a muscle car to his defining moment, at which time Ricky's father preaches, "If you're not first, you're last."

The film follows Ricky's meteoric rise to fame as NASCAR's best driver, and his painful descent to a nobody at the hands of Formula One-turned-NASCAR driver Jean Girard, played by Ali G (Sacha Baron Cohen). Then, with the help of his friends and absentee father (Gary Cole), Ricky manages to work through his pain and defeat Girard.

While the movie won't win Ferrell or McKay any Oscars, it will give the audience plenty of opportunities to laugh (making over $47 million on opening weekend in the process). The movie is filled with laugh-out-loud moments, courtesy of Ferrell, Cohen, Cole and even Michael Clarke Duncan, who plays Ricky's pit crew leader.

The funniest moment comes during outtakes shown while the credits are rolling, where Duncan describes his love of dressing up like Donna Summers and singing her songs.

It also manages to make fun of almost anything you can imagine. And if you can find a product that isn't plugged somewhere in this movie, I'll give you a pat on the back.

The problem with the movie is definitely not the performances, though, or the product placement.

The thing that draws audiences to these movies is the comedy: the funny one liners and the more elaborate, hilarious skits, like a cougar in a car. However, the movie makers will invariably stretch these into a 90-minute feature, and in so-doing, must implement a plot.

This is the case here, and the plot just isn't good enough to keep people interested. The movie has plenty to keep people enthralled for an hour, maybe even 70 minutes. But the extra 25 minutes is wasted on boring "plot advancement" and "character development." You know, the stuff that wins Oscars.

No one would go to see a 70-minute movie, though, so I guess the numbers prove that they made the right decision. Besides, I think the movie is worth the price of admission (just make sure it's a matinée), if only for Duncan and the bloopers reel.