The title of this pitch-perfect parody of an auto-racing biopic is "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," but the racing hero's name is so great that people are already just calling it "Ricky
August 13, 2006 (Press Release) --
Three cheers for Ricky Bobby -- the man, the myth, the name. The title of this pitch-perfect parody of an auto-racing biopic is "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," but the racing hero's name is so great (and so much fun to say) that people are already just calling it "Ricky Bobby." The first time I heard the title character's nom de tube in "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy," the previous collaboration between Will Farrell and Adam McKay, I laughed out loud. A 1970s local newscaster? What better name than Ron Burgundy? And now, a NASCAR driver? Ricky Bobby, of course!
And the way Sacha Baron Cohen, as Ricky Bobby's gay French nemesis Jean Girard, pronounces his name (something like "Yrikee Bubbee" may be the closest print equivalent) is, remarkably, funny every single time. If Cohen's Borat movie ("Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan") is anywhere near as amusing as this one, a movie star is born. Er, "boorn."
As a biopic of a famous popular figure (following the Hollywood template of movies like "Walk the Line" and "Ray"), "Ricky Bobby" is flawless. It doesn't stand outside and make references to other movies; it inhabits the biopic formula all the way through -- even down to the slightly draggy stretch in the second act, before the big comeback.
There are the childhood scenes that have become part of the legend -- how young Ricky Bobby was born in the back of a speeding Chevy, to his first (and, for too long, only) words: "I wanna go fast." His shiftless, beer-drinkin', pot-smokin', ramblin' dad Reese Bobby (Gary Cole -- as good as he was in "Office Space") is, of course, mostly off cruisin' down the highway, so he's raised by his formerly wild-gal mom, Lucy (the magnificent Jane Lynch, from "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Best in Show").
Ricky Bobby grows up to possess a winning record, countless corporate sponsors and endorsement deals, a big house, a driveway full of cars and boats, a Hot Wife (Leslie Bibb, as Carley Bobby), two trash-talking young sons, Walker and Texas Ranger (Houston Tumlin and Grayson Russell), and an enthusiastically subservient best friend and second banana Cal Naughton, Jr. (the always brilliant John C. Reilly), whose very name pegs him as a nothing. A Junior nothing.
Source: http://www.yahoo.com
Posted by Jim Emerson
And the way Sacha Baron Cohen, as Ricky Bobby's gay French nemesis Jean Girard, pronounces his name (something like "Yrikee Bubbee" may be the closest print equivalent) is, remarkably, funny every single time. If Cohen's Borat movie ("Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan") is anywhere near as amusing as this one, a movie star is born. Er, "boorn."
As a biopic of a famous popular figure (following the Hollywood template of movies like "Walk the Line" and "Ray"), "Ricky Bobby" is flawless. It doesn't stand outside and make references to other movies; it inhabits the biopic formula all the way through -- even down to the slightly draggy stretch in the second act, before the big comeback.
There are the childhood scenes that have become part of the legend -- how young Ricky Bobby was born in the back of a speeding Chevy, to his first (and, for too long, only) words: "I wanna go fast." His shiftless, beer-drinkin', pot-smokin', ramblin' dad Reese Bobby (Gary Cole -- as good as he was in "Office Space") is, of course, mostly off cruisin' down the highway, so he's raised by his formerly wild-gal mom, Lucy (the magnificent Jane Lynch, from "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Best in Show").
Ricky Bobby grows up to possess a winning record, countless corporate sponsors and endorsement deals, a big house, a driveway full of cars and boats, a Hot Wife (Leslie Bibb, as Carley Bobby), two trash-talking young sons, Walker and Texas Ranger (Houston Tumlin and Grayson Russell), and an enthusiastically subservient best friend and second banana Cal Naughton, Jr. (the always brilliant John C. Reilly), whose very name pegs him as a nothing. A Junior nothing.
Source: http://www.yahoo.com
Posted by Jim Emerson
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