Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Ballad is the latest offering from the folks who brought us the side splitting hilarity of Anchorman and, while this goofy parody of NASCAR doesn't deliver the jokes as fast and furiously as Anchorman, it has enough high energy laughs to make it one of the more enjoyable comedies of the year. Granted '06 has not been a banner year for comedies thus far (with the obvious exception of Thank You For Smoking, Clerks II, and the upcoming Borat).

In Talladega Nights, Will Ferrell plays Ricky Bobby, a dimwitted stock car driver whose biggest goal in life is to "go fast." With the aid of his best friend Cal Naughton (John C. Reilly), Bobby sling shots his way to the top of the NASCAR game until a French racing sensation (played by Sacha Baron Cohen) starts stealing his thunder.

While Talladega Nights is lampooning racing in general, it also borrows quite a bit from the Tom Cruise flick Days of Thunder in terms of it's extremely loose plot structure. For example, a big portion of this movie follows Ricky Bobby's attempt at reacquiring his racing "mojo" after experiencing a wreck on the track.

As was the case with Anchorman, director Adam McKay encourages his roster of comedic talent to do a lot of improv work on the fly. But unlike that side-splitting piece of extemporaneous bliss, Talladega Nights actually features (what's more – seems to actually follow) what some might consider a plot. And in fact, there are even a couple of character arcs. Furthermore, the comedy director gets to try his hand at some action oriented fare. Some of the racing footage is pretty damn impressive.

Will Ferrell once again puts his lovable man-child personae front and center, and this time he puts a Southern spin on it. The end result is pretty damn funny, although I'll confess that it does help a lot that I'm already a big Ferrell fan going in. I don't think Talladega Nights will do anything to change your opinion of the man.

Ferrell gets a terrific boost from a hilarious supporting cast. John C. Reilly (coming off a wonderfully goofy turn in Robert Altman's Prairie Home Companion), is a riot as Ricky Bobby's life long buddy Cal. He is, perhaps, the only character in the film who's actually more clueless than the star of the show. Sacha Baron Cohen cracked me up as Ricky's homosexual adversary, a nutty racer who delivers his lines in a bizarre dialect that has to be heard to be believed. I've certainly never met a Frenchman who talks the way he does. As much as I liked Cohen in this movie, I don't think it had to do as much with the character he's playing as it has to do with my not being able to get him out of my head after seeing him in the riotously ingenious Borat (that movie comes out in November).

Perhaps the funniest bit of acting in Talladega Nights comes from Gary Cole who virtually steels every scene he's in as Ricky's loser of a father. As the burnout Reese, Cole has the more inspired moments of the film. On a final note, I really enjoyed Junebug's Amy Adams as Bobby's mousy assistant. She has a monologue towards the end of the movie that had me in stitches, and her little "Whitesnake" video moment with Ferrell is picture perfect.

Talladega Nights is stupid funny and it earns extra points for leaving the raunch factor at home. Most of the picture is laced with slapstick humor (watch as an unharmed Bobby strips down to his underwear and runs around the track like a mad man–convinced he's on fire), over the top schtick (see our fearless hero take on a bloodthirsty cougar) and goofy references that brought a smile to my face (the homage to Highlander in particular, slayed me). What's more, The Ballad of Ricky Bobby features the likes of Mos Def and Elvis Costello in the oddest and most random of cameos. Just silly, silly, stuff.

Cars is the definitive stock car racing flick of the season, and it still remains to be seen if Talladega Nights will improve with repeated viewings as I've only seen it once. As it stands, I didn't laugh as hard at this as I did at Anchorman, but it certainly has it's moments, and it's clear that Adam McKay and Will Ferrell were born to work together. I'll be looking forward to their next comedy with anticipation. In the meantime, The Ballad of Ricky Bobby offers enough spirited laughs to warrant a hearty recommendation.