An occasional laugh doesn't prevent this from being a mostly unfunny and sometimes uncomfortable film

Rating: 4/10 (27 July 2008)

I saw the first little bit of this movie three years ago, and it seemed promising. However, a couple months later, I got to see the whole thing from start to finish, and was disappointed. Not long after that, I watched "Old School", another film featuring the polarizing Will Ferrell, and was amused. However, I've seen "Old School" twice since then, and the second time, I thought it was reasonable, but it wasn't the same as the first viewing. The third time, I was pretty much indifferent to it. I was hoping "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy" would be more enjoyable with a second viewing three years later, but I was once again let down.
Set in the 1970's, Ron Burgundy is the top anchorman in San Diego, California. He is friends with three colleagues; Brian Fantana, Brick Tamland, and Champ Kind, and these four make up a very sexist all-male news team. With feminism on the rise, a woman named Veronica Corningstone is hired to bring diversity to the team, and finds that three of her sexist, dimwitted co-workers get on her nerves in their attempts to seduce her. Soon, Ron finds himself falling in love with Veronica, and she agrees to go out with him one night when he claims it's strictly professional, not a romantic date, but during the outing, he manages to impress her enough to start a romantic relationship. This relationship looks promising, until Ron learns the full extent of Veronica's ambitions. She makes it clear that she wants to go further in the news business and become an anchor, and the chauvinistic Ron feels threatened by this, so a rivalry ensues!
Where do I begin? Well, for the most part, I was simply bored. As you would probably expect, Will Ferrell plays a silly maniac, and while the polarizing comedian has made me laugh on several occasions, sometimes hard (for example, in a lot of the "Saturday Night Live" sketches I've seen him in), he's not too amusing most of the time in "Anchorman". The part early in the film where Ron Burgundy says "You have the most breathtaking hiney," was amusing to me this time, just like it was before, and Burgundy's goofiness can be mildly amusing at other times as well, such as when he can't help but announce his relationship with Veronica out loud, despite promising to keep it a secret. However, his antics are usually boring, and none of the other characters are funny enough to save the film, either. The jokes are sometimes just a little TOO puerile, such as Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) saying "It smells like, like a used diaper, filled with Indian food!" I've never cared much for the scene where the angry motorcyclist (played by Jack Black) throws Burgundy's dog over the bridge. Also, late in the film, Burgundy unemployed and drunk with a bad reputation around town was a little disturbing to me at times.
Crude, juvenile, and overall stupid comedies are popular these days, especially with us guys, and I sometimes enjoy them myself, I can't deny that. As long as I get my laughs from them, they're usually fine in my book. However, some of these films overdo it with the stupidity, and "Anchorman" may be one of those, though it's definitely been done worse, with the likes of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer's appalling "spoof" movies, and a film I watched just last month, "Freddy Got Fingered". Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying anyone who likes this 2004 comedy is dimwitted, but I don't think it's a film I'll ever be able to get into, since I didn't like it the first time and it didn't improve with a second viewing three years later. For some people, mostly guys, I'm sure "Anchorman" is fun to watch for laughs and silliness, but even if you often get a kick out of this type of comedy, there's always a chance you might be disappointed.