It seems Will Ferrell has spent most of his film career trying to find a new home for the brilliant skit-comedy talents he showcased on Saturday Night Live. But for Ferrell, like many SNL alumni before him, feature films have proven to be an alien, sometimes inhospitable environment. The intensity of Ferrell's performance tends to become annoying over the course of a longer story where character trumps caricature.

Whether "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" represents success in finding that elusive star vehicle or simply a surrender to the gravitational pull of Saturday Night Live style skit comedy I'm not quite sure, but either way it's a movie that allow

s Ferrell to mine a lot of laughs.

"Talladega Nights" tells the story of the rise, fall, and redemption of Ricky Bobby (Will Ferrell) a dumb as a stump yokel whose single-minded lust for speed makes him the idiot savant of the NASCAR circuit. As story telling it's no literary masterpiece. In fact, the script gives the distinct impression of having been written in a single afternoon fueled by a few beers, but it does possess a certain genius of concept. Ferrell, with his squinty stare, has a gift for playing the bubba: a man intellectually behind the curve but not about to own up to it. John C. Reilly as his life-long friend and teammate, Cal Naughton Jr., looks like he was minted from the same mentally short-changed gene pool. Together they create a meatball chemistry that powers the movie over its other deficits.

Ricky and Cal land jobs in the pit crew of NASCAR's least successful racing team. Just when it looks like they've reached the logical zenith of their short trip up the economic ladder their driver wanders off in search of some fast food during a pit stop and Ricky gets his big break. He jumps behind the wheel and a star is born.

What "Talladega Nights" does best is exploit its underpowered script for an endless string of sight gags and jokes. Ferrell may not have mastered the nuances of fleshing out a character but he knows how to light up a gag. Ricky's meandering meditations while saying grace before a meal are wonderfully loopy.

The central scene in the movie - a car crash that brings an abrupt end to Ricky's rise to glory - highlights the best and worst of "Talladega Nights." All of the promotional trailers for the movie show Ricky running around the track after the wreck wearing only his helmet and his underpants, convinced that an imagined fire is consuming him. It is very funny in the trailer and it's just as funny in the movie - for just about as long. But in the movie the scene keeps on going and Ricky is still prancing around in his jockey shorts long after the laughter has petered out. "Talladega Nights" seems to be disinterested in the elements of film-craft that would sculpt its humor. Writing, directing and editing are given short shrift in favor of throwing gag after gag at the audience.

But, to be fair, when the gags work, they really work. Ricky's road to a comeback delivers some of the best scenes in the movie. His long absent, racecar-driving father (Gary Cole) shows up with some questionable training methods that include a "feel the force" driving lesson and a cougar.

"Talladega Nights" is a popcorn comedy. If you're looking for the classic Will Ferrell comedy you may be disappointed. And, if you stop to think about the wasted comedic opportunities presented by a cast that includes Ferrell and Reilly but the under-utilized Jane Lynch, Amy Adams, and Greg Germann you might be tempted to pound your head against a wall.

So buy that tub of popcorn, leave your inner film critic at the door and enjoy the laughs when they come. When things slow down be patient, another one is sure to wander by in a little while.

Bruce Bulloch regularly reviews films showing at the Admiral Theatre and can be reached via wseditor@robinsonnews.com