Highlander may have been the "Oscar winner for most awesomest movie ever," but Will Ferrell's latest movie Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby is here to put up a fight.
NASCAR driver Ricky Bobby was brought up a winner ("If you ain't first, you're last!"), so his life is town apart when Frenchman Jean Girard (Staines' own Sacha Baron Cohen) arrives and knocks him off the top spot. His life implodes, to the point that even lifelong "Shake 'n Bake" sidekick John C. Reilly turns his back on him, morphing instead in to "The Magician". Luckily Ricky's long lost drunk of a dad comes back into his life and leads him to salvation - through some ingenious use of a cougar.
There is some vague political subtext, with the rivalry between the backwards Americans and prententious French sophisticates - but let's not kid anyone. If you seen any movie with Ferrell, or the Wilson brother's, or Vince Vaughn for that matter then you probably have a pretty clear idea of what to expect here. It's dumb and drawn out, like a series of disconnected sketches from an unfinished TV pilot. There's never any doubt how it's going to end, but there are plenty of laughs along the way.
It doesn't have the clever sub-text and emotional depth of cinematic classic Old School, but there are some genius More Cowbell moments from Ferrell. Those, plus a great red-neck soundtrack (and the fact that John C. Reilly's favourite Jesus has white wings and is backed on stage by Lynyrd Skynyrd, while he is drunk in the front row) are almost worth the future DVD rental price alone.
THAT JUST HAPPENED!