*** Official ANCHORMAN: THE LEGEND OF RON BURGUNDY Review Thread (1 Viewer)

[Chris]

Ok, I've been saving a review on this since Wednesday, because I really didn't know what to say.

This is the latest vehicle by Will Ferrell to hit the screen. The summary of plot goes something like this:

A newscaster in San Diego has an overactive ego, and along with fellow twits "rules the romp" around town, although many seemingly don't know him (?)
His station manager announces that they need diversity in their newscast, and brings in a woman (Christina Applegate) to fit the role.

Let the hilarity ensue!

Except, it doesn't. In fact, the film mostly lays there and flops around. I checked my watch often and found myself wondering aloud what the point really was. Christina Applegate's character is fond enough, until part way through the film her character totally collapses on everything is it built on..

The finale leaves a lot to be desired. Outside of a strangely placed political swipe at the Bush administration, there is another bit which I'm not even sure what the heck it means, it was so out of place with not just the rest of the film, but anything I can think of. Maybe some sort of inside joke.

The only saving grace of the film is Fred Willard, who has some great scenes.

This isn't the "vulgar, unwatchable" horror that say, Freddy Got Fingered was. It's just mostly dull. If anything, this is a film that could use going back to the drawing board and being rethought.

* / ****

 

[Robert Crawford]

This thread is now the Official Review Thread for "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy". Please post all HTF member reviews in this thread.

Any other comments, links to other reviews, or discussion items will be deleted from this thread without warning!

If you need to discuss those type of issues then I have designated an Official Discussion Thread.



Crawdaddy

 

[Patrick Sun]

I had reservations going into this film, and the first 10-15 minutes of the film was uninspired and dull, but then it takes off during the "Yazz Flute" scene and gets kicked it into another gear, and produced a lot of laughs for me throughout the rest of the movie.

Don't go in expecting a tightly plotted comedy, and you won't be let down. I literally was slapping my knee and laughing heartily at many of the scenes in this movie. Will Ferrell's Ron the achorman could have easily been a dullard and uninteresting, but Ferrell's antic keep the laughs coming during Ron's stressful times, and adds just enough character growth to be sympathetic in the end. The Brick character (an insanely stupid weatherman) should have been one-note and lackluster in concept, but he just got funnier and funnier as the movie progressed. There is an interesting homage to West Side story in the movie, and it proved to be very amusing (though a bit graphic as it played out).

I give it 3 stars, or a grade of B.

 

[Adam_S]

:star:½

The big problem with Anchorman is that it is pure pastiche, it's nothing but blank parody. It has nothing really to satirize (satire should also be a good example of what it's sending up, Forget Paris for instance), it usually lacks the wit and wisdom of anarchic humor such as Monty Python or the Marx Brothers. All around most of the film was like a painfully unfunny SNL sketch that's not even making low grade MadTV level sketch quality (the SNL debates this season were at this level). Some things really work. The fight is gloriously silly, Steve Carrell is in a different movie (which is apparently funny) so he's actually the film's highlight in every scene he's part of. The bears and the dog at the end were also gloriously silly, so that worked. What didn't work was the plot hinging on trumped up sexism and mid forty year olds acting as though they are eight. It might be funny if there was a point, or even if there deliberately was no point--but it's neither, it's people trying desperately hard to be funny mostly by mugging for the camera in really annoying and repetitive ways. People trying desperately hard to be funny (and mostly failing) is not humor in my opinion, even on the few on moments when it actually works.

Tommy Boy and Happy Gilmore are masterpieces of modern comedy, Anchorman can't even come close to approaching their ranks.

Adam