A Silly, but Delightful Comedy

Rating: 7/10 (25 December 2004)

Anchorman launches us into the world of the 1970's broadcast journalism with local San Diego anchor Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) as the poster boy for men behaving badly. His supporting anchors introduce themselves by breaking the fourth wall with all the casual gusto of their on-air person as. There's good-IL'-boy Champ Kind (David Koechner) with sports, ladies' man Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd) in the field, and dumb-as-a-Brick Tamland (Steven Carell) on weather. Soon, new reporter Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) enters the fray. Improbably, Ron and Veronica hit it off until a series of events puts her in the co-anchor seat and professional jealousy rips them apart, sending Ron on a downward spiral.
Anchorman is funny from beginning to end, mainly thanks to Ferrell's incessant and skillful need to be zany at all moments of filming. Ferrell is so good at turning even the worst material into something witty that there is really no point in analyzing the script; the only thing that can be said is that the script obviously gave Ferrell and the rest of the cast free range to work their magic, and also throws in some calculated jabs at the television journalism. For instance, for the entire movie all of the news stations are clambering over the story of a pregnant panda at the zoo, labeling it as "the story of the decade." Funny enough, this isn't too far from the truth as local news tends to put a huge emphasis on unimportant animal stories.
Written by Will Farrell and director Adam McKay, it's a campy, extended "Saturday Night Live" skit - but an amusing one. While Ferrell embodies the clueless buffoon, he and Applegate have a cheerful comedic chemistry which is even more apparent in the outtakes that play over the final credits. Ben Stiller, Tim Robbins and Vice Vaughn pop up in cameos, and the soundtrack is a delight.
Overall: 7/10