Pretty low, even for a movie which is supposed to be lowbrow

Rating: 2/10 (13 October 2006)

Don't really know how to describe this but what a waste of time. Ferrell has surprised me with good parts in Austin Powers movies and the hilarious Zoolander. This would have been a great part for the late, great Phil Hartman, who I would have love to have seen in this role. Just imagining what he would have been able to do with it makes it all the more sadder that he is no more.
Ron Burgundy, the anchor man Ferrell is portraying is in Ferrell's own words, kind of dumb. That would not make the movie dumb in itself but Ferrell makes the awful mistake by letting the character too aware that he is dumb. He should have been oblivious to the fact most of the time. Christina Applegate's character is even worse because we know by now that there has to be a virtually straight man/woman to comment on the dumbness of Burgundy but she ends up looking much more ridiculous than Burgundy at the end. The only one who sort of goes unscathed is Steve Carell, who may be playing the most stupid character in the movie but does it with such a straight face that he plows right over Ferrell in every scene he's in. He is fast becoming the absolute no. 1 comic actor today.
Then of course you have the usual cameos by Ferrell's cronies like Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller but they don't amount to much. They are there absolutely for show.
The one scene that did crack me up was when Ferrell and Applegate throw insults at each other during the closing credits and look like they have a professional conversation. That was a brilliant little scene and I wished that "Anchorman" could have had that kind of edge right through it all.
The end is sort of a cross between the end of "Animal House" and the awful last scene of that Adam Sandler favorite "Anger Management". I heard that this film was in part inspired by a true event concerning the first female anchor. It must have been a very small part.