With no apology - this movie is lame.

Rating: Null/10 (11 July 2004)

Will Ferrell comes across as a babbling idiot who is absolutely desperate for approval - his jokes varied between funny to odd to just plain crazy.
I found the movie to be inconsistent and only marginally funny. The theatre I was in was half-empty so the jokes that didn't go over were met with stone silence. I did hear a few snorts of disdain through the movie.
The scene where Paul Rudds character talks about naming his penis and testicles is just plain strange. The character himself isn't horrible and the scene about the men's cologne is pretty funny (reminded me of old Hai Karate commercials for those of you old enough to remember those).
David Koechner as the sportscaster was irritating and I don't recall him having a single funny line. His best scene is where he's a ragdoll for a bear - as for the bearpit scene itself I find myself asking who is Ferrell's audience? 10 year old boys who are amused by making farting sounds with their armpits?
Christina Applegate - I like her and don't think she gets nearly enough work. This movie is not going to help her career. I had hoped that as this is a movie about gender "war" that the main female character would be well written. Will Ferrell is content to leave the Corningstone character 2-dimensional and the character's behaviour is completely unpredictable. Why were there no other female characters of any consequence in this movie? It's about the emergence of the women's liberation movement in the 70's forchrissakes! You'd think they'd find room for women in the script. What we get is Christina Applegate in miniskirts and eminently forgettable lines.
The background - the 70's. Great idea - poorly realized. Ben Stillers homage to the 70's in Starsky & Hutch did a much better job. Do you think they could have tossed in a few more baseline references to set the tone - how about trotting out Ronald Reagan (he was Governor of California) - and there were no references to movies of that era - one reference was to Planet of the Apes (but that's a 60's movie).
OK - Steve Carell's character got some great lines and his comic timing is superb. He did have me laughing out loud and Ferrell used the character very well. Vince Vaughn was good and should have had more scenes - but his final scene at the bearpit made me squirm it was so badly written (what can an actor do with lines like that??)
The "rumble" scene was ridiculous, the "down & out" routine was silly and the whole thing doesn't deserve more than a 5 out of 10 in my books (and that's due solely to Steve Carrel - otherwise I'd rate it much lower).
American cinema needs an "Alpha" Comic badly and Will Ferrell isn't it.