My Review of "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby"

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby is a comedy that came out back in 2006. I remember watching this movie back then and having an uproarious time. That was then and this is now. Since that time I must have seen this movie numerous times and it never got old. Close to 20 years later this movie has to show some signs of age doesn't it?

The movie starts off telling the history of the titular protagonist Ricky Bobby. He grew up in a very unconventional home. His father often abandoned him and his mother, leaving his mother to take on all responsibilities. Still throughout his life he idolized his father.

One fateful day in school his father came for some sort of professional development day. His father of course wasn't of sound mind as usual and spouted some nonsense to Ricky and his friends. This rant planted a bug into Ricky to become a professional race car driver.

Years later, Ricky eventually becomes a race car driver under some ridiculous circumstances. He seems to have an innate talent for it and starts living out his dream. Unfortunately for Ricky his ego and ignorance gets ahold of him and a new rival gets put into the picture. It's an F1 car driver from France that has all the skill in the world.

This new French driver intimidates Ricky and his whole world starts to go down the drain. This movie is about Ricky's crawl from below and coming back on top and they do it in such hilarious fashion.

There's so much comedy in this movie but they do in a variety of different ways. There's slapstick humor, introspective humor, absurd humor and the list goes on. Watching this movie again I'm shocked at how versatile the comedy is in this movie. On one situation I love the absurdity of Ricky and his best friend Cal get into such a horrible situation but yet strangely remain best of friends.

This unconditional love is something sprinkled throughout the movie with a ton of the relationships between all the characters. It gives this movie this warmness where you care for everyone despite how horrible they are. There is so much heart in this movie that you can't help but love it. Every character is like a different individual puppy that you can't turn your head away from.

Being a movie from 2006, I was surprised that all of the special effects surprisingly stand the test of time. Yes there's the occasional bad effect but for the most part they had me immersed throughout the movie.

Although the movie is very predictable there are a few elements that are able to slip the cracks. I like what they did with Ricky's dad. I thought his character progression was consistent to who he was and it kind of addresses certain things in real life. Not everyone is looking to have a happy homelife. There are just some people out there that don't want that and I've even met these people before. So there's still some elements of reality throughout this movie.

There are a few very clever elements to this movie as well. Things that will make you think on the spot about a certain situation. Seeing as this movie is this old and the message is still clear means that the truths back then still exist today. Some of those truths are scary and they satire this scenarios.

Overall, I really loved this movie if you can't tell. After so many years this movie is still one of my favorite movies to rewatch. Even if you're not into NASCAR you should check this movie out because it's not about the race but rather the characters. I have to give this movie an 8 out of 10. I'm sure I'll still come back to this one decades from now.