Anchorman- Review Thread



The news celebrities where I live generally consist of goofy sports guys or overly tan weathermen, so yes I can believe San Diego could really love someone like Ron Burgundy. Do rival news crews have battle royales in seedy back alleys? No and that’s what keeps Anchorman from achieving something above a good Saturday Night Live skit. There are some inspired jokes involving wise dogs and their incredible journeys, the battle of the sexes between Ron and his new female co-anchor, and about 70’s life in general, but in the end, Anchorman is only funny in the moments and doesn’t really click as a whole.

Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) is the most popular TV anchorman in San Diego. He makes unfunny comments seem funny to his audience, and heads a goofy news crew including sports with Champ Kind (David Koechner), “our man in the field” Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd), and the funniest Brick Tamland (Steve Carell) with weather. When the boss (Fred Willard) is forced to add diversity (not a wooden Civil War ship) to the news crew in the form of Veronica Corningstone, and after a failed relationship with her, Ron feels threatened by her presence in the news room. The plot unfurls to a showdown at the zoo involving giant Kodiak bears, a cameo appearance with no arms, and an surprise hero. Make no mistake, this isn’t sharp satire; it’s pure goofball comedy.

Will Ferrell is very funny here but in the same way his James Lipton or George W. Bush were funny, not in the endearing way his Buddy is funny in Elf. He is great with both verbal and physical humor. I can’t wait to see how he pulls off Franz Liebkind in the remake of The Producers. Christina Applegate is quite funny here as well. She keeps up nicely with Ferrell and the two have surprisingly good chemistry. Fred Willard doesn’t feel our of place in his role, but feels sort of unused. He has a running joke that his son keeps doing terrible things that I didn’t really find too funny.

The news crew is well cast as well. They all feel as campy and male-chauvinistic as they should. The funniest lines come from Steve Carell as the weather guy with an IQ that would classify him mentally retarded. In the end, a joke about him that feels like a cheap shot really is a cheap shot, but it’s dern funny. The cameos are hit-and-miss. The best one is a rowdy biker who incites tragedy in Ron‘s life, and the worse is the lead anchor for the Spanish language channel who joins the battle royale. The guy’s just been in too many movies this year.

I didn’t laugh as often at Anchorman as I did at Dodgeball. Ferrell adds more of a forceful comedic presence to the film, but Dodgeball felt more like a movie than a long skit. Even though it’s not as relentlessly hilarious, it’s got enough charm and funny moments to recommend.



I can't wait to see this movie

 

 

 

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