KING OF THE ROAD

REVIEWED - TALLADEGA NIGHTS: THE BALLAD OF RICKY BOBBY'HANG on, buddy. Are you laughing at me or with me?" Thus, I imagine, will many fans of Nascar - that most mind-numbingly oval of American pastimes - respond to the latest, hilarious film from the director and star of Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.

I'm not sure what the team's answer should be. But auto-phobic readers alienated by the encomiums to Formula 1 for the lobotomised in Cars will be happy to learn that Talladega Nights is merciless in its ridiculing of the sport's fans and participants. The brainless Ricky Bobby, played with familiar stoicism by Will Ferrell, wastes hours of his day experimenting with new ways to say grace; he christens his psychotically badly behaved children Walker and Texas Ranger; and, even after becoming the country's most successful driver, dines on nothing but big-name junk foods.

Come to think of it, the marketing men at Taco Bell, Domino's Pizza, Coca-Cola and various other feed merchants may, like those Nascar junkies, be unsure as to whether their dubious products are being celebrated or derided. If all publicity really is good publicity then why didn't McDonald's put money into Super Size Me?

Anyway, Talladega Nights's overwhelming triumph at the US summer box-office suggests that significant numbers among those most mocked have, commendably, decided to see the joke. They were, perhaps, reassured by the presence of a character constructed to mercilessly - and without any apparent affection - disparage a nation notably unpopular in the flag-waving southern states. At the height of his career, Ricky's supremacy is challenged by the rise of a jazz-loving, French homosexual from (speak through your sinuses here) Formula Un.

Some of the film's extended comic riffs are too indulgently improvised, one suspects, and drag somewhat. But Sacha Baron Cohen's performance as Jean Gerard, who reads L'Etranger while driving and, even more suspiciously, counts Elvis Costello among his friends, is indecently hilarious throughout.

Let's hope Cohen has the good sense to resist the offers (sure to come his way) to star in a Pink Panther sequel.