Talladega Nights: Thank You, Baby Jesus!

If you haven't seen Talladega Nights yet, you should (at least so you'll get the title of this post). I had avoided it due to my inability to sit through any Will Ferrell performance, but the hot nurse at NIH told me to get over it and rent it regardless. So of course I did. ;)

Oh my lord, it is so funny. I don't want to spoil it for you if you haven't seen it, but I do have to give props to two actors who, I think, get limited credit for their work: John C. Reilly as Ricky Bobby's (Ferrell's) friend, and Gary Cole as Reese Bobby, Ferrell's father.

First Reilly. He's been in movies from Boogie Nights to Magnolia to The Aviator to, well, TN: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. He's that guy you know but don't know his name. He's that guy who is the friend of the guy carrying the movie. And, every single time, he's fantastic.

Next, Cole. Gary Cole will always be Lumbergh to me. That boss in the movie Office Space (the key movie about work for my generation) who says, "Yeaaaah. I'm gonna have to ask you to go ahead and come in on Saturday..." He was horrifying in his likeness to so many bosses I and my friends had had. But he has also been Mike Brady in the Brady Bunch movies, Vice President Russell on the West Wing, and in movies like Dodgeball, as well as tons of TV shows. I don't think he gets enough credit for being able to inhabit so many different kinds of roles from comedy to drama.


So, anyway, this is a post about Talladega Nights, which you should see, if for no other reasons than Sasha Baron Cohen's role as Bobby's French nemesis Jean Girard, and the fact that Ricky Bobby named his sons "Walker" and "Texas Ranger".