I was pleasantly surprised by this one. I wasn't expecting too much going in but the movie provided laughs throughout. Having a gay, intellectual Frenchman as the most evil character NASCAR has ever known was genius satire (and played brilliantly over-the-top by Sacha Cohen) and I just about died laughing from Cal's confession to Ricky Bobby. A movie hasn't perfected a blend of comedy and stupidity this well since Dumb & Dumber.
It was good. I really liked Sacha Cohen's queer Frenchie NASCAR driver. Knowing a lot of NASCAR fans, and knowing exactly how they'd react to such a thing in real life, that made it all too hilarious.
^He had the best lines too. Ricky Bobby: Holding hands with a man makes me terribly uncomfortable. Jean Girard: It's a sign of affection in many countries. Ricky Bobby: Well, not here. Jean Girard: It is not sexual in any way. My erection has nothing to do with you. It was also hilarious how Cal and Ricky Bobby couldn't stop being friends even when they should have hated each other.
I thought is was a fun movie. I live near a race track and all the idiots surrounding it. It was like home for me.
Uneven, but with some brilliant satire and a few big laughs. Farrell is funny, Cohen is terrific, and Gary Cole and John C. O'Reilly are perfectly cast. 6.5/10.
I may raise my earlier score. A couple of subsequent viewings have made it go up in my estimation. Like all of Will Farrell's comedies, there's a lot of misses, but the hits are solid. Girard: "I saw zis Highlandair...it was sheeeeet!"
