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Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby is a 2006 comedy film about NASCAR racing. The film is directed by Adam McKay, who co-wrote the film with Will Ferrell. The film stars Ferrell and co-stars John C. Reilly, Sacha Baron Cohen, Michael Clarke Duncan, Leslie Bibb, Amy Adams, Gary Cole and Jane Lynch. Various Saturday Night Live alumni also make appearances.
The film was primarily shot in North Carolina including Charlotte, Huntersville, Cornelius, Cabarrus and Gaston counties. Additional filming was done at the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. Racetrack scenes at Texas Motor Speedway were shot at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina, using a Porsche Cayenne outfitted with camera mounts on all four corners of the car.
The film is rated PG-13 by the MPAA for crude and sexual humor, language, drug references and brief comic violence.
Plot
Ricky Bobby (Will Ferrell) was born to "go fast". He was born in the back seat of his father's car, and raised solely by his mother Lucy Bobby (Jane Lynch) while his drug addict and alcoholic father Reese Bobby (Gary Cole) is absent. Many years later, while working on a pit crew as the jackman for a race team, he replaces an uninterested driver named Terry Cheveaux (Adam McKay) and ends up finishing third despite starting mid-race in last place. Ricky quickly soars to the top of NASCAR, achieving fame and fortune at Dennit Racing and meeting his future wife, Carley (Leslie Bibb). He arranges to get his best friend, Cal (John C. Reilly), as the second driver of the team. While on top of the racing world, Ricky is challenged by gay French Formula One driver Jean Girard (Sacha Baron Cohen). Girard outperforms Ricky on the track and becomes NASCAR's top driver. Ricky, desperate to regain his dominance, pushes himself too hard and ends up in a spectacular wreck, during which he believes that he is on fire, although there is no fire. While recovering, he persists in the belief that he is paralyzed, though he clearly is not. He eventually recovers from his crash and tests at Rockingham Speedway, where he underperforms and fails to regain a place on the team. Carley, yearning to be married to a top NASCAR driver, plans a divorce and a marriage to Cal before Ricky gets home that night.
Ricky takes his two sons, Walker (Houston Tumlin) and Texas Ranger (Grayson Russell), and moves back home with his mother. He takes a job as a pizza delivery driver and is reduced to using a bicycle after losing his license. With his life at its lowpoint, Reese suddenly reenters Ricky's life and tries to teach Ricky to drive by using the fear he experienced. With the retraining and guidance of his father, Ricky regains his confidence but still refuses to race after Reese walks out. When Ricky runs into his former assistant, Susan (Amy Adams), at a bar, she convinces Ricky to get back into racing at the Talladega 500 and they fall in love. The race ends with all cars being wrecked and Girard and Bobby running on foot to the finish line. Both drivers are disqualified for violating race procedures and Cal wins the race, having been in third prior to the wrecks. Ricky and Cal repair their friendship and the family, consisting of Ricky, Susan, Walker, Texas Ranger, and Ricky's mother, meet Reese in the parking lot and reunite for a dinner during which they plan to get thrown out of Applebee's.
Cast
Reception
The film grossed $47,042,215 in its first week, becoming the #1 film at the box office. It is the second-biggest opening weekend ever for an original comedy, after Bruce Almighty, and the biggest opening for a film starring Will Ferrell. As of April 26, 2007, the film has grossed an estimated $162,966,177 worldwide.[1]
The film holds a current rating of 73% on Rotten Tomatoes, and 66 metarating at Metacritic.
DVD release
The film was released on standard DVD, PSP UMD and Blu-ray on December 12, 2006. The menu gives the viewer the choice of Super Speedway (with footage of the film used as intros when Special Features, Scene Selection, etc. is chosen) or Short Track (without video intros.) The film is presented on standard DVD in four different configurations, giving consumers the choice between either theatrical or unrated versions and anamorphic widescreen (2.40:1 aspect ratio) or pan & scan presentations. As for the audio, each standard DVD carries Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks in English and French with optional English and French subtitles. Extras for the standard DVD editions include a retrospective '25 Years Later' commentary track featuring most of the main cast, deleted and extended scenes along with bonus race footage, featurettes, interviews with Ricky, Cal, and Carley, a gag reel, a 'Line-O-Rama' feature with alternate dialogue from the film, and DVD-ROM content. The unrated discs contain additional deleted scenes ("Cal Calls Ricky" and "What'd You Do Today?"), an interview with Jean and Gregory, and commercials. However, the "Unrated & Uncut" DVD omits two scenes and one part that shows that are present in the theatrical version; the scene where young Ricky steals his mother's station wagon, and the scene which shows what happened to Ricky's pit crew. The scenes are not present in the deleted scenes either.
The Blu-ray release is available on a dual layer disc with the majority of features presented in high definition including: nine deleted/extended scenes, three interviews, gag reel, Line-O-Rama, bonus race footage, Ricky & Cal's Commercials (However, Cal is not seen in any of the commercials), Ricky & Cal's PSAs, Walker & Texas Ranger, Will Ferrell Returns to Talladega and a theatrical trailer. There are also three extras not presented in high definition: Daytona 500 Spot, NASCAR Chase for the Nextel Cup Spot, and Sirius and NASCAR Spot. In terms of technical aspects, this edition carries the unrated cut and presents the film with an anamorphic widescreen transfer at its 2.40:1 theatrical aspect ratio and includes Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks in English and French and an uncompressed PCM 5.1 audio track in English, along with English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese, Korean, and Thai subtitles.
The first 1 million 60GB, and 20GB PlayStation 3 units included a free Blu-ray copy of the film.
References
External links
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