124 of 131 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Theatrical PG-13 cut is great. So called unrated/uncut version is a bust., December 13, 2006
Talladega Nights is a very, very funny movie that spoofs Nascar without actually making fun of it and its fans. In fact, this movie can actually appeal to people who don't even care for Nascar.
Will Ferrel teamed back up with Adam McKay (the duo who produced/made the great Anchorman) to make this story that plays a lot like if Days of Thunder had been approached as a comedy instead of a dead serious (and unintentionally funny) film.
While other people are focusing on the film itself, I would like to focus on the this whole mess of the PG-13 theatrical cut being released in wide and full screen along with (what is unfortunately a common practice) a "UNRATED/UNCUT" versions that boasts "13 additional minutes of footage".
Now, for one thing, the theatrical cut was 108 minutes and actually could have used some more tightening. This is a 100 minute movie at most. I don't have a problem with people putting footage back into a DVD version of a movie if it's stuff that belongs and actually makes the movie better.
This is a case, in which it doesn't. The additional 13 minutes cause some scenes that were funny in the theatrical cut to drag on until they're at an interminable length in some cases. The added footage actually dilutes the humor in places.
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But the alarming thing about this so called "UNCUT" version is that the movie actually ELIMINATES A FEW MEMORABLE SCENES THAT WERE PRESENT IN THE THEATRICAL CUT. The scene in which a young Ricky steals his mom's car while she's in a convenience store is gone, which totally destroys the whole part in which Ricky volunteers to drive his team's car by saying "I wanna to go fast".
Also, the scene in which Ricky calls Lucious at Lucios' car wash to tell him he's racing again at Talladega is gone as well. This scene showed just what Lucious and his pit crew had been up to during Ricky's hiatus from racing.
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If they had left everything in the theatrical cut and just added footage, I maybe could have lived with it. But the fact that they cut footage out is a travesty and false advertising to people who loved the movie in theaters.
Most of the added footage just grinds the movie to a halt and like I mentioned before, as funny as the movie is, it was still about 8 minutes too long even in the theatrical cut.
There are very few cases in which I feel that an extended version of a movie was superior (lord of the rings trilogy, 40 year old virgin) and in most cases it's just a case of DVD producers putting out an early cut or something of a movie that was tweaked after the fact during test screenings. This is how the unrated cut of Talladega Nights comes across.
So, if you loved the movie in theaters, just stick with the PG-13 theatrical widescreen cut. If you haven't seen the movie before, I would see this cut first before testing out the unrated cut. Many will share the same opinion that I have about this.
I'm really sick of pointless "unrated" cuts coming out that just shoe horn back in footage that was taken out for a good reason to begin with.
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30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
This is not the movie you saw in the theatre., December 15, 2006
Before you buy this DVD you must know this is not the movie you saw in the theatre. The cover art says uncut, that is a boldface lie. One of the funniest scenes in the movie, when young Ricky drives his mother's car has been deleted. It is not in the deleted scenes, it has been removed as if it never existed.
Other scenes have been altered to add material that was rightfully let out of the theatrical release. The new material is not funny, and ruins the pace of the original. I was very disappointed that Sony would offer this mishappen DVD as the original movie. A great cry of protest should ring out to the studios letting them know that alteration of a product for DVD release is not acceptable.
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I Loved This Movie and I Don't Watch Nascar!, August 4, 2006
Everybody in my theater was cracking up throughout the entire movie. This is my favorite Will Ferrell movie by far. He really nails the part and doesn't abuse his comic gifts. John C. Reilly as his best bud, Gary Cole as his wacky father, and the french rival, played by Sacha Baron Cohen, are great as well. I really haven't had this much fun watching a comedy at the theater in a long time, there are just so many lines that are destined to become classic. I will be adding this one to my DVD collection for sure.
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