Talladega Nights: Not the Ballad They Claim

We went out tonight to go see a movie called Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby with some friends and it was a real letdown. While it had its moments (there were parts that were genuinely hilarious), there was content in the movie that just turned me off of wanting to watch it.

The film is about a Nascar driver, Ricky Bobby, played by Will Farrel, who believes that either you're in first place or you're in last place. He rises to fame as a great driver, has a trophy wife, two kids, and lives by the seat of his pants. He's not a smart guy, in fact he's an idiot, but he's got lots of money. A driver from the F-1 circut in Europe, a Frenchman played by Sacha Baron Cohen, decides he needs a new challenge and gets into Nascar to race against Ricky Bobby. In their first race together Ricky Bobby ends up having a crash, he looses his edge, and his wife leaves him for his best friend because he's not a winner. As the movie goes on his estranged father helps him get his edge back and he enters the final race of the season against his new European opponent, the Frenchman, who just happens to be gay.

Like I said, the movie has some funny parts but there was a lot of content that did not need to be in there and it was extremely offensive.

First and foremost is the blasphemy when he's praying. It drew a laugh from the group of us when he started but it continued to go on and on, making fun of the name of Jesus and of God. It was not funny the second time or any subsequent time and there were a lot of subsequent times.

Secondly was the gay racer. Ok, pop culture says being gay is ok, and I don't agree with that, but they took it to the extreme in this movie with men kissing passionately on the screen on more than one occasion (including Farrel and Cohen at the end for a shot that lasted well over 5 seconds). It was disgusting and I do not understand why anyone would find that funny based on the movie or want to watch that. There were also other "gay" moments in the film that could have easily been cut out of the movie and would have enhanced it in my opinion.

The third key issue I had with the film is the way Ricky Bobby's children acted. They swore and they had no respect for anyone (including their parents, their grandfather, or anyone else they met) and it was disgraceful. One positive side of the movie is that once the children moved in with their grandmother (Ricky Bobby's mother) after his wife left him for his best friend, she taught them manners and they became well-behaved and respectful kids.

All in all, the movie was a big disappointment. It highlights a lot of things that are wrong with our society and makes it funny so people don't really think that there's anything wrong at all. The previews for the movie excluded the above issues, which is why we wanted to go see it, but had we known what the actual content of the movie was, we would have never gone.

My recommendation, don't support this type of film and don't waste your time watching it.

D