Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
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| Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby | |
|---|---|
| Image:Talladega nights.jpg Promotional Poster | |
| Directed by | Adam McKay |
| Produced by | Will Ferrell Judd Apatow Jimmy Miller |
| Written by | Adam McKay Will Ferrell |
| Starring | Will Ferrell John C. Reilly Sacha Baron Cohen Michael Clarke Duncan Leslie Bibb Amy Adams Gary Cole Jane Lynch |
| Music by | Alex Wurman |
| Cinematography | Oliver Wood |
| Editing by | Brent White |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | August 4, 2006 |
| Running time | Theatrical: 108 min. Unrated DVD: 121 min. |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $72,500,000 |
| Preceded by | Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) |
| Official website | |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby , also known as Ricky Bobby, or Talladega Nights, is a 2006 American comedy film about NASCAR racing. The film is directed by Adam McKay, who co-wrote the film with Will Ferrell. The film stars Ferrell and co-stars John C. Reilly, Sasha Baron Cohen, Michael Clarke Duncan, Leslie Bibb, Amy Adams, Gary Cole and Jane Lynch. Various Saturday Night Live alumni also make appearances.
The film was primarily shot in North Carolina including Charlotte, Huntersville, Cornelius, Cabarrus and Gaston counties. Additional filming was done at the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. Racetrack scenes at Texas Motor Speedway were shot at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina, using a Chevy El Camino outfitted with camera mounts on all four corners of the car.
The film is the second leg of the Mediocre American Man Trilogy.
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
The plot tells the story of a NASCAR stock car racer Ricky Bobby (Ferrel) whose "win at all costs" approach has made him a national hero. He and his racing partner and childhood friend Cal Naughton, Jr. (Reilly), are a fearless duo—dubbed "Shake 'N' Bake" with the ability to finish most races in first and second place, with Cal always in second. When a gay French Formula One driver, Jean Girard (Sacha Baron Cohen), challenges the two for the supremacy of NASCAR, Ricky Bobby must face his own demons and fight Girard for the right to be known as racing's top driver.
[edit] Box office
The film grossed $47,042,215 in its first week, becoming the #1 film at the box office. It is the second-biggest opening weekend ever for an original comedy, after Bruce Almighty, and the biggest opening for a film starring Will Ferrell. As of April 26, 2007, the film has made an estimated $162,966,177 worldwide.[1]
[edit] DVD release
The film was released on standard DVD and Blu-ray on December 12, 2006. The menu gives the viewer the choice of Super Speedway (with footage of the film used as intros when Special Features, Scene Selection, etc. is chosen) or Short Track (without video intros.) The film is presented on standard DVD in four different configurations, giving consumers the choice between either theatrical or unrated versions and anamorphic widescreen (2.40:1 aspect ratio) or pan & scan presentations. As for the audio, each standard DVD carries Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks in English and French with optional English and French subtitles. Extras for the standard DVD editions include a retrospective '25 Years Later' commentary track featuring most of the main cast, deleted and extended scenes along with bonus race footage, featurettes, interviews with Ricky, Cal, and Carley, a gag reel, a 'Line-O-Rama' feature with alternate dialogue from the film, and DVD-ROM content. The unrated discs contain additional deleted scenes ("Cal Calls Ricky" and "What'd You Do Today?"), an interview with Jean and Gregory, and commercials. However, the "Unrated & Uncut" DVD omits two scenes that are present in the theatrical version; the scene where young Ricky steals his mother's station wagon, and the scene which shows what happened to Ricky's pit crew. The scenes are not present in the deleted scenes either.
The Blu-ray release is available on a dual layer disc with the majority of features presented in high definition including: nine deleted/extended scenes, three interviews, gag reel, Line-O-Rama, bonus race footage, Ricky & Cal's Commercials (However, Cal is not seen in any of the commercials), Ricky & Cal's PSAs, Walker & Texas Ranger, Will Ferrell Returns to Talladega and a theatrical trailer. There are also three extras not presented in high definition: Daytona 500 Spot, NASCAR Chase for the Nextel Cup Spot, and Sirius and NASCAR Spot. In terms of technical aspects, this edition carries the unrated cut and presents the film with an anamorphic widescreen transfer at its 2.40:1 theatrical aspect ratio and includes Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks in English and French and an uncompressed PCM 5.1 audio track in English, along with English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese, Korean, and Thai subtitles.
[edit] Trivia
| Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- When Ricky has his airborne crash in the UAW-GM Quality 500 (the name was changed to the Bank of America 500 in 2006) at Lowe's Motor Speedway, you can see the back-end of the car being completely crushed while he's tumbling down the backstretch. But when the car comes to rest upside down, the camera shows a close-up of the back-end, which is still perfectly intact. In addition, during the same wreck, the Fig Newtons sticker that Ricky had on his windshield disappears as it probably was taken off on a pitstop or during the crash.
- There is a post-credits scene featuring Walker and Texas Ranger reading a William Faulkner novel with Lucy Bobby.
- Even though Amy Adams has more screen time near the end of the film, she delivers the longest line in the film when she and Ricky fell in love at the bar.
- The first 400,000 PlayStation 3 systems included a Blu-ray copy of the movie, a month before the DVD of the film was released. This disc contained only the movie and the only extra material were promotional trailers of other films played before the film during its theatrical performance.
- Cal, Ricky and Girard were all actually introduced during driver introductions at the 2005 UAW Ford 500 at Talladega. Ricky and Cal were cheered, but when Girard was introduced as a driver from France driving the Perrier car, the entire crowd started booing without any prompting. [1]
- The film correctly displays the Winston Cup Series logo when the NEXTEL Cup was known by that name. In addition, it also transitions correctly into using the Nextel Cup logo, which was first used at the beginning of the 2004 season. However, near the beginning of the movie, when the flagman waves the flag at Talladega, the Nextel Cup logo is seen painted on the wall. Also, the logo for the UAW Ford 500 can be seen, but in 1996 that race was known as the Winston Select 500. Also, during a 1990s race in the beginning of the film, the flagman waves the checkered flag in a flagstand that reads USG Sheetrock 400. This is a race that has always been held at the Chicagoland Speedway, which did not hold its inaugural race until mid-2001. However, several shots meant to be taken place for Talladega races show cars at a different, intermediate track, and vice versa. The "Talladega" cars can be seen with brake ducts next to the grille openings, which are not run at Talladega.
- When asked to be in the film, one Nextel Cup team read the script and declined to participate, saying "It'll set the sport back 25 years."[2]
- Jamie McMurray, who has a cameo role in the film as himself, currently drives the no. 26 car, which was the number Ricky used in the film.
- Dale Earnhardt Jr., Darrell Waltrip, and John C. Reilly have all appeared in other racing-themed films. Reilly appeared in Days of Thunder, and Waltrip and Earnhardt Jr. appeared in Cars. Earnhardt Jr. also had a cameo in Herbie: Fully Loaded.
- After the big wreck at Talladega, tow trucks are shown coming to Scott Riggs's crashed car which is by the start/finish line, despite the fact that the wreck occurred on the backstretch.
- Will Ferrell and Sacha Baron Cohen won the Best Kiss award at the 2007 MTV Movie Awards.
- Will Ferrell wanted Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy cast member Steve Carell to co-star in the film, but Carell had to decline due to schedule conflicts.
- Ricky Bobby has a motorcycle endorsement on his North Carolina driver's license.
- Gary Cole and Jane Lynch, who played Ricky's parents, are in reality just eleven and seven years older than Will Ferrell.
- The song "Faithfully" was played in a bar scene in the film, Will Ferrell is himself a massive Journey fan.
- After Girand and Ricky are Disqualified from the Race, and Cal is celebrating in victory lane, he stands on a completely clean, undented car, even though he was involved in a wreck earlier in the race
- Since Ricky's father, Resse, is 55 years old and the night Ricky was conceived Resse was 17, it can be implied that Ricky is 38. Also Ricky stated he has not seen his father in 25 years, which means he has not seen Resse since he was 13.
[edit] References
- ^ Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Box Office Mojo (26 April 2007). Retrieved on 2007-04-26.
- ^ The Charlotte Observer, October 14, 2005
Judd Apatow | |
|---|---|
| Feature Films | The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005) · Knocked Up (2007) |
| Screenplays | Heavyweights (1995) · Celtic Pride (1996) · The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005) · Fun with Dick and Jane (2005) · Knocked Up (2007) · Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007) · Pineapple Express (2008) |
| Productions | Heavyweights (1995) · The Cable Guy (1996) · Celtic Pride (1996) · Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) · Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie (2004) · The 40 Year Old Virgin(2005) · Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006) · Knocked Up (2007) · Superbad (2007) · Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007) · Drillbit Taylor (2008) · Pineapple Express (2008) · Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) · Step Brothers (2008) |
| Television Credits | The Ben Stiller Show (1992 - 1993) · The Critic (1994 - 1995) · The Larry Sanders Show (1993 - 1998) · Freaks and Geeks (1999 - 2000) · Undeclared (2001 - 2002) |
Mediocre American Man Trilogy | |
|---|---|
| Films: | Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy • Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby |
| Cast and Crew: | Will Ferrell • Adam McKay • Judd Apatow • David Koechner |
| Direct-to-video: | Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie |
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