Talladega Nights: The Ballad of the Missing Scenes

Thanks to our new movie channels, Bryan and I settled in last night to watch one of our favorite movies: Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Being the NASCAR fans that we are and yes, I'll admit it--Hi, I'm Korynn and I'm a NASCAR fan--Talladega Nights is one of our favorite movies. It makes fun of NASCAR but also shows it for the redneck fest that it is. But I'm straying from my point. We saw this movie at the theater and bought the DVD the day it was released and there are many discrepencies between the theater movie and the so-called "UNCUT" DVD.

The "uncut" DVD has delightful scenes that include Cal Naughton's speedoed plea over the phone for Ricky to "cross over the anger bridge and come back to the friendship shore", and Jean Girard's pre-race luncheon with Elvis Costello and rapper Mos Def. But unfortunately, the "uncut" DVD is MISSING two very important scenes. One: a young Ricky Bobby takes a joyride in his mother's station wagon using his plastic wiffle bat to reach the gas pedal. Two: (the best scene of the movie) after Ricky quits racing his pit crew goes to work at a car wash and find out that old habits die hard when they refuel and change the tires of cars that just need a wash and wax.

We forgot how vital these scenes were to the comedy of the movie until we saw them again courtesy of the Encore channel. I am very disappointed in the "uncut" dvd that is in fact not uncut at all, but cut with extra scenes added. So those of you who have only scene the movie on DVD, I'm sorry that you have missed out. Trust me, the two missing scenes are two of the best.