Reels & Wheels

Ok, we admit it. This is a super fun movie. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby features Will Ferrell in full Will Ferrell mode. In retrospect, the guy is extremely funny. What really knocks this movie out of the park is an excellent supporting cast, most of whom are playing against type.

Joining Sid and James to talk about this movie and the state of NASCAR is comedian Tim Loulies! Tim gives great insight into the NASCAR experience and all the pieces that make this movie a quotable and extremely fun comedy.

And James talks some Formula One jargon just to balance things out.

Tim Loulies is a touring comic and the teacher at the Virginia Beach Funny Bone comedy school. He runs comedy shows at Derls and Mario's restaurants as well as on the Spirit of Norfolk. Find Tim on social media by searching "Tim Loulies!" As always, follow @ReelsandWheels on Facebook and follow Sid (@SidBridgeComedy) and James (@S2KJames). Don't forget to leave us some feedback!

A touch of creativity and the help of a good writer COULD HAVE produced a noteworthy sequel to one of the greatest car movies of all time, Smokey and the Bandit. Instead, everybody failed. Our hero Hal Needham failed to produce anything more than a week retread of the previous movie, our stars (with the exception of Jerry Reed) failed to show much interest in their own performances, and Pontiac failed by producing the most anemic, gawdy, Trans Am with 1980 Turbo Trans Am.

Smokey and the Bandit II might have made a few kids happy. It might have made its money-grabbing producer happy, and it might have made Hal Needham happy on payday, but it sent what could have been a bankable franchise into a downward spiral it would never recover from.

Jerry Reed tries his best to make this movie great - and it's not without its moments - indeed, a stunt man performs a record-setting jump that's mostly buried in the climactic game of chicken at the end of the movie - but it's not enough.

This movie, like Burt Reynolds' flagging career and the malaise-era, underpowered turbo Trans Am, is just plain terrible.

Don't watch this movie. Listen to this podcast. Learn where the best scenes are, then be happy you missed it. If you saw it, sorry. Follow us! @SidBridgeComedy, @S2KJames, @ReelsandWheels! Leave us some feedback! Anybody want to defend this movie? Let us know!

Edgar Wright has created a masterpiece. This kick-ass car movie isn't just set to music... it's part of the music. Baby Driver goes a step beyond when it comes to car chase choreography and it's a car movie with great characters and plenty of fun easter eggs.

Ed Carden of The Pushers (owners of The Push Comedy Theater) once again joins James and Sid, this time to bring his expertise as a huge fan of Edgar Wright's work.

This movie is going to be a requirement for any car lover's collection. How confident was Edgar Wright in this movie? Pretty confident - the entire opening chase featuring a red Subaru WRX is available for free on YouTube.

How amazing was the choreography? What would your getaway car be?! Enjoy this episode of Reels and Wheels!

Find Ed Carden at the Push Comedy Theater - www.pushcomedytheater.com - we especially recommend you catch him during one of their legendary "Improvaggedon" shows!

Catch Sid @SidBridgeComedy and James @S2KJames on Facebook or Twitter. Subscribe to Reels and Wheels on iTunes or Stitcher and leave some feedback! @ReelsandWheels

The Love Bug... Cute Disney movie? Yes. Awesome racing movie? Even more so, yes! Sid and James are joined by Jason Torchinsky of Jalopnik to talk about the movie that started the Herbie franchise, the awesome cars that played supporting roles, and the surprisingly great racing scenes of The Love Bug.

Not only is Jason a writer for Jalopnik, but he's also a VW Beetle owner and he's unusually passionate about this movie. When you give The Love Bug a second viewing as an adult, you start to understand why. Herbie is up against some amazing race competition - C2 Corvettes, Jaguars, Lamborghinis, and of course the ultra rare, Buick V8 powered Apollo GT.

Racing scenes convey a sense of danger and excitement that you honestly wouldn't expect from a kids movie, and Herbie - a sentient VW that doesn't talk, manages to convey quite a few complex emotions, including a pretty intense suicide attempt.

The laughs are there, too - with Buddy Hackett shedding his foul-mouth stand-up persona to play the silly sidekick and David Tomlinson flying headfirst into the villain role with dastardly brilliance.

Find Jason and his wonderful articles at www.jalopnik.com! Subscribe to Reels and Wheels on iTunes or Stitcher and leave us some feedback! @ReelsandWheels, @SidBridgeComedy and @S2KJames

Ah, the glorious world of late 1980's horror. In Warlock, a witch hunter doing battle with the titular Warlock in colonial America follows his adversary forward in time to the 1980's in order to stop him from destroying the world.

Dragged into the middle of this mess is our protagonist, played by Lori Singer, who joins Redfearn the Witch Hunter on his quest to save the world from evil paganism - all while depending on a daily driver that's unsafe at any speed. Yep, our hero drives a Corvair.

James makes Sid pull double duty as host AND guest, as Sid has previously owned two Corvairs and can talk about the car from first hand experience.

Was this movie really bad? Was it good? What factors sabotaged it from being great? And was the Corvair all that bad?! Was it actually unsafe at any speed or was Ralph Nader just an idiot? (Actually you probably know the answer to that one).

Subscribe to Reels and Wheels on iTunes or Stitcher and leave us some feedback! Follow @ReelsandWheels, @SidBridgeComedy and @S2KJames!

YES IT'S A CAR MOVIE! Sorry. We've already had that question a few times before people even knew we were recording this episode. Comedian/Member of Plan B Improv and friend of the show CB Wilkins joins James and Sid to talk about Spaceballs!

In this epic Mel Brooks comedy, the Star Wars universe is parodied so well that George Lucas himself blessed the movie, telling Brooks it would be a great action film even without the Star Wars references. And he's right. Brooks did an amazing job constructing this parody of the scifi universe, creating great characters and an infinite number of quotable lines.

And yes, there are iconic cars - particularly Lonestar's ship, which is a barely modified 1986 Winnebago. Princess Vespa cruises in a space Mercedes, and the evil Spaceballs comb the desert in a Volkswagen Thing!

Subscribe to Reels and Wheels on iTunes or Stitcher and leave us some feedback! Find CB Wilkins online @CBWilkinsTweets and www.planbimprov.com. Find us, @ReelsAndWheels, Sid @SidBridgeComedy and James @S2KJames on twitter!

Celebrating 40 years of Smokey and the Bandit, Reels and Wheels recently hosted a meetup at a screen of one of the greatest car movies of all time. James was joined by a group of autocrossers who debate what would make a great bandit car today. It's a fun conversation and a great way to celebrate one of our favorite movies!

Need more? Check out our original episode on Smokey and the Bandit:

http://reelsandwheels.libsyn.com/smokey-and-the-bandit

William Friedkin directed The Exorcist and The French Connection. If you ask him which film he considers to be his magnum opus, his will proudly name his biggest box office failure, Sorcerer!

Sorcerer (1977) is a film about four desperate men stuck in third world South America forced to truck unstable explosives through the jungle. Confused yet? There's nothing supernatural about this movie, unless you count the two trucks - a pair of 1951 GMC M211's named Lazaro and Sorcerer.

Sorcerer failed in the box office because many factors: It's misleading name, people being confused since the first 15 minutes are not in English, and it just happen to hit the theaters at the same time as Star Wars.

It's a shame because this movie is awesome. Joining us to soak in the awesomeness is script writer, film buff and comedian Jeff Davis. We discuss the craziness behind the scenes of this film, the nature of the trucks, and how to bring great films like this one to a wider audience.

Follow @ReelsandWheels and subscribe on Stitcher and iTunes. Find Sid and James- @SidBridgeComedy and @S2KJames on social media. Find Jeff online - @JefDavis23

Paul Newman was a fixture in the car racing universe. How did it happen? Winning. Newman saw the script for the 1969 movie about a car racer and his love life and decided to make sure it was elevated from movie-of-the-week status to big budget box office picture.

Winning was about a race car driver who focused on succeeding at Indianapolis at the expense of his marriage. And it kind of sucked. Joining us is Heyward Wagner, Director of Experiential Programs for the Sports Car Club of America. Heyward has first hand knowledge of Newman's impact on the SCCA racing scene and agrees with James and Sid that the movie kind of sucked.

How accurate was its portrayal of various forms of racing? What good came from the movie? (Spoiler: Lots of good came from the movie) Can a "great" racing movie be made today?

Follow @ReelsandWheels and subscribe on Stitcher and iTunes. Find Sid and James- @SidBridgeComedy and @S2KJames on social media. Interested in all the great things Heyward is doing for the SCCA? Find out more here! https://www.scca.com/

So you need a sequel to your exciting car racing movie, but your Disney overlords want you to sell tons of toys and give them more Larry the Cable Guy... Do you blow them off or go all in?

Well, Pixar went all in. Cars 2 is one of the most critically panned movies Pixar ever created. In some ways, it's terrible. In some ways, it's positively brilliant. Pixar doesn't half-ass anything and Cars 2 is a fun spy thriller with plenty of shiny toys for the kids and lots of in-jokes for adults.

Joining us to talk Cars 2 is one of our favorite repeat guests, comedian Derek Williams! Derek and James defend the movie to Sid, who kind of sees their point. Yeah, it's a little ridiculous, but for us car guys it's not a bad thing - it's actually a good way to expose our kids to different forms of racing outside of NASCAR thanks to the variety of race cars in the movie.

Which is the best race car? Does the movie treat lemons fairly? What's Sig from Deadliest Catch doing in there anyway?!

Follow @ReelsandWheels on iTunes and Stitcher and leave feedback. Find us online - @SidBridgeComedy, @S2KJames and @Naamco03 and let us know what you think!