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83It is Ferrell's best movie and the summer's funniest comedy so far.
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83Will Ferrell does chicken-fried comedy right: with crackpot discipline and stripped-to-the-beer-belly courage.
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80Not just the funniest but the smartest comedy around by a mile.
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80Talladega Nights may be brash, unbridled, even unhinged, but its cornpone humor is rich in parody, and its craftsmanship is superb -- smart writing, shrewd direction, precisely calibrated performances (whether the calibration calls for delicacy or broad-gauge burlesque), inventive language, inspired silliness and all-but-flawless timing.
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75Reilly can play nuts, too, and in a lower gear that reins Ferrell in. They're a great team.
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For the first half-hour or so, this thing works like white lightning.
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75The British star of "Ali G" fame plays Ricky Bobby's arch-nemesis. His name: Jean Girard. His provenance: France. His sponsor: Perrier. Speaking through a set of nasty-looking, tightly clenched teeth in the faux-est of faux French accents, Cohen is hilarious.
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75This is a decidedly blue-state take on a red-state phenomenon.
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75Those who appreciate Ferrell's sense of humor will be utterly entertained by his efforts to kick it into high gear.
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75Like "Anchorman," the secret to the inspired absurdity of Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby is in the improv.
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75We are treated to the riotous, almost David Lynchian moment in which Ferrell runs around a motorway in his undies screaming that he's on fire. He's not. Actually, come to think of it: He is.
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75The races are scorchingly shot, and they lend the movie a zest.
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70From its pitch-perfect title through just about every detail, this sendup of sports-triumph movies maintains the right parodic pitch, if not always the highest mph on the laugh speedometer.
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70An affable entertainment, both a celebration and a satire of lowbrow pleasures.
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Ferrell reminds the audience of why he matters: because he's the loudest, driest, and most fearless comic actor working.
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70A bit of a mess, but it is a genial mess, and one that will make you laugh. Which is the whole idea.
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70As a cultural artifact, Talladega Nights is both completely phony and, therefore, utterly authentic. Or, to put it differently: this movie is the real thing. It's finger lickin' good. It's eatin' good in the neighborhood. It's the King of Beers. It's Wonder Bread.
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70As good as a summer comedy about NASCAR has any right to be, with fine actors tucked into every nook and cranny.
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70Simultaneously teasing and loving a subject doesn't make for easy comedy, but writer-star Will Ferrell and director/co-writer Adam McKay pull it off with good-ol'-boy good nature in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.
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70Unlike many other purveyors of hip comedy, they're consistently clever without being contemptuous of their audience.
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Silly, inconsistent, and completely frivolous, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby also happens to be one of the funniest movies this side of 2006.
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67When Cohen and Ferrell are eyeing each other, you never saw a loopier pair.
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67When the crazy comes, it's pretty good crazy. Ferrell is in full-on brazen redneck mode, doing a variation on his "Saturday Night Live" George W. Bush impression.
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63The laughs come and go, but Ferrell makes NASCAR his bitch funny. Funnier. And more fun. And then the fun skids to a stop. You know how it goes: Plot gets in the way.
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63Ferrell's shtick never grows tiresome, because it's constantly changing.
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63Mainly, though, it's the performers who are having the last laugh.
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Lacks the guts of genuine satire.
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50You laugh a few times but, in the end, you wonder why you bothered.
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50So if you like Ferrell or Cohen, go ahead buy some popcorn, check your brain at the door, and you will laugh.
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50They've interspersed laugh-out-loud segments with dry, repetitive material.
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50Comedy, of course, is a complicated dance between rhythm and timing, but Talladega Nights drags where it should be crackling and popping.
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40Monotonous. For while it offers a few precious laughs, Talladega Nights simply apes the look and feel of most recent Ferrell movies.
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40On the Ferrellometer, Talladega Nights sits just above "Kicking & Screaming," when it should be redlining it up there with "Anchorman."
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 67 out of 104
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Mixed: 14 out of 104
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Negative: 23 out of 104
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RJ10It's not an awesome movie, but it earned 10 for being so funny.
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10