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| Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy |
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  (7/10)
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Runtime: 91 m |
| Public Rating: 8.60 (215 votes) |
Director: Adam McKay |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Comedy |
Year: 2004 |
| Writer(s): Will Ferrell, Adam McKay |
| Distributor: Dreamworks SKG |
| Reviewed by: Mark Chua |
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Starring Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, David Koechner, Fred Willard, Chris Parnell
They bring you the news: so you don’t have to get it yourself.
Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) has it all: a perfectly-groomed mustache, strongly parted hair, unbelievably chiseled guns, and most importantly, as the anchorman of San Diego’s top-rated news team, he is the city’s most beloved son. As they say in San Diego, “If Ron Burgundy says it, it has to be true.” And when the Channel 4 News Team decides it needs to diversify, Ron Burgundy is all for it. That is, until he finds out that diversity is not a ship used during the civil war era, but instead comes in the form of female reporter Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate). When Veronica goes after Ron Burgundy’s spot as lead anchor, it becomes an all-out war for the spot at the top.
Anchorman is, for all intents and purposes, nothing but an excuse to have Will Ferrell and his buddies act like jackasses for 91 minutes. And, if you’re a fan of his ad-libbed, deadpan style, that is a very, very good thing. Ferrell shines when he plays genuinely good guys stuck in the bodies of ignorant halfwits, and that, along with a very liberal and mis-placed sprinkling of arrogance, is the very definition of Ron Burgundy. You see a little bit of past Will Ferrell characters in Ron Burgundy, like the boorish, visceral oaf Frank the Tank from Old School, the arrogance from his impressions of singer Robert Goulet, the inept Federal Wildlife Marshall Willenholly from Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and even the charm of Buddy from Elf. Burgundy oozes that chauvinistic machismo that was so prevalent in the 70’s, and when you combine that accuracy with Ferrell’s magic, and toss in a perfectly styled coif and a moustache that would make even the most flamboyant porn star cower in fear, and you get a character for the ages. Like Austin Powers, Ace Ventura, and Happy Gilmore before him, the name Ron Burgundy will now have a place in pop culture. His signature close off, “Stay Classy, San Diego” or one of his other sayings are sure to be repeated ad nauseum in the media until at least mid-November. Thanks to Ron Burgundy, we have our “Alrighty then!” for 2004.
From the minute you see the cheesy, grandstanding, only-in-the-70’s introduction of the “Team 4 Action News Team”, you get the sense that the quality of this movie hangs not only on Ferrell’s head, but on his Action News Teammates as well. And do they ever deliver. The highlight of the group is weatherman Brick Tamland (Steve Carell), a man who, “enjoys a pair of slacks, and, years later, will be told he’s something called ‘mentally retarded’”. Brick, with his non-offensive smile and incredibly low IQ takes stupidity to an entirely new level. There’s the line between stupid funny (Jim Carrey as Lloyd Christmas) and just plain stupid (Shawn Wayans in anything he’s done the last half-decade), but who knew that past that line was the line where it’s so incredibly friggin stupid that you can’t help but laugh? Steve Carell did, and that’s precisely where Brick Tamland sits. Brick is not only the dumbest man ever seen on the big screen; he’s also the most oblivious to the events going on around him. He may also be one of the funniest sidekicks we’ve seen in a very long time. Paul Rudd plays man on the street Brian Fantana, the group’s resident ‘love machine’. He’s a guy who not only has a nickname for his penis, but for both his left and right testes as well. Sports reporter Champ Kind (David Koechner), complete with his trademark phrase, “Whammy!” is your everyday guy’s guy. He’s also a guy whose homosexuality is repressed so poorly you may as well have put a bow on his head and named him Sally. The four guys who make up the Action News Team have such an amazing rapport with each other you could swear that half the time, the gags going on, and the conversations they’re having are completely ad-libbed and done on the spot. And when you watch the trailers and then see the movie, it becomes crystal clear that for the majority of the time, these guys were just ad-libbing their way through most of the scenes. This may seem like a critique, but if you’ve seen Will Ferrell’s cut scenes from other movies, and throw in three guys who share his particular brand of comedy, and you realize that putting a camera in front of them and letting them go to town is about all of the work you’re going to need to do as a director.
Unfortunately, that’s pretty much all rookie director Adam McKay does. A former Saturday Night Live writer/director and friend of Will Ferrell’s, this is his first time directing a major motion picture, and it shows. The already loose plot line is basically thrown out the window and Anchorman becomes less a movie and more a series of 10 minute sketches with a small segue linking them together. Sometimes, it doesn’t even have that. The entire movie moves like you were watching a collection of Ron Burgundy sketches from different SNL’s that were just hastily thrown together and called a movie. McKay basically relies on the ad-lib abilities of Will Ferrell and the rest of his crew and was basically there to make sure they went from set piece to set piece, firing enough sight gags and cameos in there in the hopes that you forget about little things like plot development.
Thanks to the ridiculous amounts of cameo appearances, it almost works. It almost seems like the new Hollywood rule: every three months, there MUST be a comedy, and it must contain no less than four of the following actors, regardless of how small their roles are: Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jack Black and one of Luke or Owen Wilson. The cameos are great for shock laughter, because you know that character would be entirely forgettable had they not been played by such a big star, and the “Planet of the Apes/West Side Story” scene where all of the cameo characters come together is by far the silliest thing I’ve ever seen on the big screen.
With all of the rampant silliness going on, you just need a straight-man to let you know the entire world of Anchorman isn’t filled with mentally challenged weathermen, whip-wielding Spanish anchormen and trident-throwing sportscasters. And sometimes, if a straight-man can’t do the job, sometimes you need a straight-woman and Christina Applegate does a decent job as the only person on San Diego’s #1 news team who isn’t certifiably insane. Veronica Corningstone comes off as a strong-willed woman who isn’t afraid to back down in a male-dominated profession. She also happens to be the only one with any discernable talent. Applegate fits as Corningstone, and when you consider that the majority of people seeing this movie remember her as dimwitted blonde Kelly Bundy, the fact that she can successfully pull off looking like an intelligent journalist is to be commended.
In the end, Anchorman extremely funny, and is a great way to kill off 91 minutes of your life. But is it a funny movie? I can’t say that it is, only because it really isn’t a movie, but rather a series of sketches and gags that are very hit-or-miss that, with me, just happened to hit on every single one. You’ll laugh hysterically, but don’t expect a movie: imagine taking your favorite SNL character (say, Wayne from Wayne’s World or Matt Foley, Chris Farley’s motivational speaker who lives in a van down by the river), taping every sketch ever done by that character, and watching them back-to-back for 90 minutes. That is Anchorman. It’s not a movie, but, like Brian Fantana’s cologne, “60% of the time, it works every time.”
Completed July 13, 2004
Copyright 2004 Mark Chua
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