Will Ferrell: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

5 Awesome Performances...

5. Frank "The Tank" Ricard - Old School (2003)

In Old School, three thirty-year-olds find themselves reliving their younger days after going to a massive house party full of teenagers. The newly married Frank has promised his wife that his days of hedonism are behind him, but finds it hard to adjust to a sober lifestyle. He becomes part of a fraternity with friends Mitch (Luke Wilson), the newly single attorney and Bernard (Vince Vaughn), a chauvinistic TV salesman. In a recent interview with Empire (issue: January 2014), Ferrell credits Old School as the film that changed his career for the better, and it's not hard to see why. Before this, he was known for starring in Saturday Night Live sketches, minute appearances as Mustafa in the Austin Powers movies and a few bargain bin roles in the '90s. But in 2003, Ferrell was suddenly the funniest person in the room, erupting onscreen into a hilarious flourish just as his character does when he transforms into Frank the Tank, the drunken partying typhoon his wife so despises. Just about every decision the character makes is the wrong one, but that's okay because Ferrell's seismic performance makes great entertainment out of Frank's many mistakes. In Old School, Ferrell was unstoppable, and no-one could come up with a valid reason as to why he couldn't be your next-favourite-funny-guy. From the moment Frank interrupts Snoop Dogg onstage in Mitch's garden party and suddenly goes streaking, it was clear that Ferrell was going to be a main player in major league comedy.