 Critics are marveling at the product-placement tonnage displayed in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. The movie "may break new records for product placements per frame," writes A. O. Scott in the New York Times. Steven Rea in the Philadelphia Inquirer writes that it's "a veritable orgy of product placement." Chris Vognar in the Dallas Morning News calls it "a product-placement bonanza." Still, many of the products -- it's a NASCAR movie, remember, and ads arguably rank second only to cars at NASCAR events -- come in for heavy spoofing. And the critics generally are a satisfied crowd. "Will Ferrell does chicken-fried comedy right: with crackpot discipline and stripped-to-the-beer-belly courage," writes Michael Sragow in the Baltimore Sun. Similarly Peter Howell in the Toronto Star writes that Farrell is "absolutely fearless about playing the fool, which he does with no shame or apparent forethought. His enthusiasm is infectious, and it's why parts of the patchy Talladega Nights are very funny." Lisa Kennedy in the Denver Post even calls the movie, "tantalizingly clever." But like several other critics, Kennedy writes that the movie simply doesn't provide enough funny scenes. "Even some very funny scenes, such as one in which Ricky says a prayer before dinner, roll on longer than the Daytona 500," Kyle Smith comments in the New York Post. Still no critic gives the film an out-and-out pan. Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan observes that it's "a bit of a mess, but it is a genial mess, and one that will make you laugh. Which is the whole idea." |
