Some notes on Will Ferrell movies.

I watched three Will Ferrell movies in the space of 5 days last week. This information cause one M. Longarini of Sapporo to give me a quite genuine double take and a look of shock - but what can I say, I like Will Ferrell. As Matt said, he pretty much only plays one character but I'd argue he plays that same character in many subtley different variations. Imagine you have a Will Ferrell control panel with a number of sliders that you can adjust to suit your movie. You've got like, from Sleazy to Innocent, from Deadpan to Hysterical, from Jerk to Niceguy, from Lots of Shouting to Some Shouting. You can get a lot of mileage out of that.


Yeah, I didn't watch it in German but I like that poster. I really like Blades of Glory and it works so well because the entire cast sells it, especially Will Arnett. Man, I love him in this movie, and I want to see him as a ludicrous villain in many more.


Talladega Nights, however, sucked just like everyone says. And yes, everyone says it sucks. It's not awful by any means, but it's relentlessly uninspired - and wow, actually that sounds pretty goddamn damning. I like John C. Reilly, and I like Sacha Baron Cohen most of the time, but where the deliberately inane dialogue clicks in Anchorman or Blades of Glory, here it's just flat and dumb. The only time I laughed out loud was during the end credits where the alternative takes of some of the scenes seemed to be way funnier than what they actually included.


And of course I topped it off with Elf, because it's Christmas. Elf is great, and it pushes the Ferrell-Sliders all the way to cute and innocent. Coupla things - both this and Blades of Glory involve good gags involving escalators, which is... niche? Unusual? I wonder if there are other Will Ferrell escalator scenes... Oh and also Jon Favreau? He's a pretty great director huh? Nice step-up there sir.