Dumb doesn't equal funny

Rating: 2/10 (5 March 2006)

I watched this film recently with no expectations or prior knowledge, and had to finish it in a couple of sittings. At times, I just gave up on it, paused it, watched something more interesting, then went back to it when nothing else was on.
The first thing I noticed about this film, besides the worryingly laughless first few minutes, was that I had seen many of the crew on the excruciatingly funny '40 Year Old Virgin'.
Then the differences because obvious; 'Anchorman''s characters weren't realistic, being mere caricatures, and the jokes were blatant and stupid. The fact that they seemed to be obviously so made me think the real joke would come later, but alas, no, they didn't. Brick's introductory scene first worried me (I got the feeling it was intended to be a laugh-out-loud moment, with the exception that I didn't even smile), but the scene with the jazz flute performance was when the alarm bells really went off (and signalled my first break), as it got sillier and sillier.
By comparison, '40 Year Old Virgin' took a simple premise, and created believable characters that drew sympathy from the viewers, which made their predicaments all the funnier.
Perhaps this film works best for a US audience, which recalls newscasting from the 70's, and perceives the satire within. For this audience of one, me, it was a total waste of time.
It gets 2 because I HAVE seen worse. Not by much, mind you...