“I shared all your fears about Talladega Nights — not despite but because I’m a Southerner. I never, ever got NASCAR. And I dreaded, dreaded seeing the movie. Yes, it will get an audience automatically because of the combo of Ferrell and the whole insane NASCAR phenomenon, and don’t even get me started on the idea that watching guys drive fast around a paved oval is so much more important to a huge number of people than voting or following the news is to them. But I gotta tell you, I laughed out loud at this movie , and I almost never laugh out loud. There’s an inspired, almost surreal wit to it at times, and the cast is surprisingly strong. Take that for what it’s worth. It’s a great big goof of a film, but sometimes that laugh-out-loud response is all you want. I was surprised, that’s all. Even though I think NASCAR and all it represents is… well, never mind.” — Steve Murray, film critic, Atlanta Journal-Constitution.