Mild and one-joke but sometimes funny diversion

Rating: 5/10 (11 July 2004)

Will Ferrell is a funny man, no doubt. "Elf" was a sweet and very funny Christmas-time treat. And yet "Anchorman" is much less than spectacular. Ferrell plays the legendary (and legendarily stupid) San Diego news anchorman Ron Burgundy, who is a brainless, narcissistic womanizer who loves the ladies - just not in the workplace. When Ron learns a woman named Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) will be reading the news with him, he's horrified - but not horrified enough not to sleep with her, of course. An on-air slip-up causes Ron to lose his job, whereupon Veronica becomes the station's lead anchor. But you probably know already that everything will turn out fine for old Ronnie.
There are a couple of good laughs here, mostly supplied by the energetic and brilliantly straight-faced Ferrell. And a lot of the mindless laughs come from Steve Carrell as a mentally slow weatherman with Ron's station - just as they did in "Bruce Almighty" where Steve Carrell gave a hilarious blithering on-air announcement (the movie's high point) as Jim Carrey's rival news anchor. (Do I sense a pattern here?) There are a lot of other talented people here as well, notably Fred Willard as the station manager and Vince Vaughn as a rival station's anchor. (There are also cameos from Luke Wilson and Ben Stiller, who's becoming a tiresome presence in the movies these days.)
Yet "Anchorman" is still too mild and meandering to be success. The direction here is even slacker than that of "Starsky & Hutch", which is saying something. The plot is very bland, and the film's premise is basically one joke stretched too thin, even though it's a fairly short film. It's one of those movies that could have made a good quick sketch but that feels to small to work as a full movie. And Ferrell's bumbling, over-the-top personality manages to get a few good laughs, but eventually grows a little stale.
As far as light '70s-set comedies go, I preferred "Starsky & Hutch". Maybe that's because of the good vibes that come from the excellent teaming of Stiller and Owen Wilson. They worked well as a motley crew, which is one of the main reasons "Starsky & Hutch" was a good but mild romp. Will Ferrell in "Anchorman", though, pretty much has to carry the movie, and though he does well for a while, I think he really needs to find his Owen Wilson in order to be as marvelous as Ron Burgundy's hairdo.
C+ (5/10)