Talladega Nights (12A) <!-- none onestar twostar threestar fourstar fivestar -->

What starts as a satire on the American obsession with winning - Will Ferrell stars as a racing-driver who lives by the motto "If you ain't first, you're last" - degenerates all too soon into the usual half-sincere sentimental comedy about personal redemption. Hey ho. But there are lots of chuckles and a couple of outright guffaws along the way. Sasha Baron-Cohen has some jolly moments as Ricky Bobby's gay, macchiato-sipping existentialist French rival, and John C Reilly, who in films like Chicago and Magnolia has proved himself one of the hardest-working actors in Hollywood, shows unsuspected comic gifts as Ferrell's sidekick. Probably best viewed with a six-pack on hand.