When in doubt, just yell and run around in your tighty-whiteys: "Talledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby"

After all, that always worked for Olivier and Brando, right?

You know, I shouldn't judge this "movie" too harshly. I'll fully admit I didn't think "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy" was that funny the first time I saw it, but somehow I kept watching parts of it on HBO and laughing at several scenes. Perhaps that will happen with "Talledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," but I kind of doubt it.

Why? Because it kind of sucked.

I have only myself to blame. My gut told me this movie would be bad. I never thought the general idea sounded good, even when I had the chance to watch the filming of a couple of scenes -- Will Ferrell coming out of the pizza place, the highway chase with the state troopers. Sure, movie execs may jump at hearing "Will Ferrell as a NASCAR driver," but I knew it would be a stretch to expect anything particularly clever.

Alas, several critics gave "Ricky Bobby" positive reviews, and that gave me a glimmer of hope that there might be some funny stuff here. And there was ... maybe a half-dozen scenes/lines. Unfortunately, the movie was an hour and 45 minutes, and even if My Eternal Beloved and I spent only $4 each on the early matinee, I felt a little cheated.

Ferrell plays Ricky Bobby, a hotshot NASCAR driver who rises to the top but then loses to a gay French Formula One driver, throwing his life into a tailspin. With the help of his family -- including a wayward dad -- and a good woman, Ricky Bobby gets another chance to reclaim his status as NASCAR's top dog. Cue the "Rocky" music, boys.

Yeah, not the most sophisticated plot, but what do you expect from the former "Saturday Night Live" team of Ferrell and Adam McKay, best known as the heckling audience member during SNL monologues? "Anchorman" was essentially the same story -- top dog loses it all before coming back -- but it had much more genuinely funny and bizarre scenes than this junk. It also had a bunch of laughs right off the bat, while "Ricky Bobby" takes its sweet time to get started -- ironic given the subject.

It actually was sad to see some of the people roped into this mess. You've got three Oscar nominees -- John C. Reilly as Ricky's best bud and fellow driver, Michael Clarke Duncan as their crew chief and Amy Adams as a manager -- and only Reilly seems to be having fun. You also have Gary Cole, who should have been nominated for an Oscar for "Office Space" -- "Peter! Whaaat's haaappennning ... " -- and is probably the most entertaining person here. But he also deserves better than propping up Ferrell in this drivel.

Maybe I'm being harsh, because there were some funny bits here -- Ricky Bobby saying grace, Sacha Baron Cohen as the French guy (with Andy Richter as his boyfriend!) -- but I was left wanting overall. It always seems to come back to whether Ferrell hams it up and yells or actually shows a little wit. Too much of the time, it's the former, and I quickly tired of his redneck accent and all the screaming. But when he was a little more low-key -- not knowing what to do with his hands during his first ESPN interview -- it was pretty funny.

Come to think of it, that was the same deal with "Old School" and "Anchorman." Sure, "You're my boy, Blue!" was OK, but the whole Olive-Garden-waitress-panties-trust-tree-nest thing was hilarious and much more subtle. So yeah, Will, let's work on that inside voice for a while. Even Pacino doesn't yell all the time. Hoo-wah!