Anchorman: 7/10

Rating: 7/10 (10 July 2004)

I have mixed feelings about Will Ferrell. I think he's a very funny guy and a great improviser, but I still can't let bygones be bygones and forgive him for making Old School. Although I didn't get around to seeing Elf, I think that Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy is the movie to make Ferrell a comedy star or not. If his name alone can fill theaters, I think he'll be hot property for studios in the future. The trailers for Anchorman made it look promising. I had watched the trailer many times and kept on laughing. I had hoped that all of the best parts weren't given away in the trailers, and much to my surprise, most of the material in the trailer wasn't even included in the final movie, which I guess was both a blessing and a curse. It showed that there was even more riotous material than was in the trailer, but it also meant that some of the great stuff from the trailer couldn't be in the movie.
Ron Burgundy (Ferrell) is a macho, chauvinistic, popular news anchorman in San Diego in the 1970s. He and his news team, which consists of field reporter Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd), sports anchor Champ Kind (David Koechner) and low IQed Brick Tamland (Steve Carrell), are the number one news team in town. However, Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) joins the news team and threatens the masculinity of the station, but also it threatens Ron's job. Ron and his news team try to do whatever they can to stop Veronica from becoming the first female anchor, while still trying to get in bed with her.
The whole premise seems like it's some sort of Saturday Night Live sketch stretched into a movie (almost like a Weekend Update movie-now that would be awesome), especially since Ferrell, an SNL alum, co-wrote the movie. But it's just a silly, funny, stupid movie that has little plot and relies chiefly on Ferrell's improvisation. He's a great improviser, and it shows, because it often takes center stage, taking it from where it belongs: Steve Carrell. Playing the dimwitted Brick, he has some great lines and actions. He says my favorite line in the whole movie. I won't spoil it here, but it's in an argument with a rival station (led by Vince Vaughn). That brings me to another point. It seems like they don't even try to stay coherent (like the stylings of The Naked Gun and those types of movies). It's that type of comedic styling that's always the funniest.
The laughs seemed to be coming in at a pretty steady pace, but the main problem is that this low-brow humor didn't warrant that large of laughs. They were regular, but they weren't that large. You can't expect perfection, but when you have so much material, I would think you'd try to find the best of the best. Maybe when this movie is released onto DVD there will actually be good deleted scenes. Whenever there's a movie with so much material to use, they always bring it down to about 90 minutes. Couldn't they bring it up another half hour? It'd work, I think. But anyway, Anchorman is a great, leading-role making performance by Will Ferrell, and enough consistent laughs to satisfy most people. Just beware that whenever Ferrell's name is on a poster, it usually equates to stupid humor. But there's nothing wrong with that, is there?
My rating: 7/10
Rated PG-13 for sexual humor, language and comic violence.